#cure steady

[kirric-the-fan]

A younger Cure Royale:

Royale and Adult!Royale:

Royale and Steady:

From my Precure Royale team, and Precure Memory-Royale series.

[kirric-the-fan]

I got my oc commissioned, by the wonderful @dryad-druid !

So, let me introduce you to the full design of the precure of loyalty: Cure Steady!

She's friendly!

She's strong! Tough as rocks!

And she's ste-

...

...steady on her feet when it counts.

(the precure curse strikes again)

She is solid on her feet in a fight, but it seems to inexplicably go out the window when it's not. She is terrible at the group dances, and just can't seem to coordinate at all. She'll still make an earnest attempt at it, and her teammates quickly learned to give her a little extra space, and a helping hand if need be.

Some more notes on the design below the cut.

So, when coming up with the design, I started at Green Cure, White hair (short), and hints of mossy rock and lichen vibes.

The design is deliberately early cure style, as the Precure Royales are a 'missing' pre-futari wa team.

The heart pads in her palm aren't the only hidden hearts in her outfit. See if you can spot the others!

Steady is definitely the muscles of the group, breaking through walls, holding back enemies or grabbing and throwing them where they need to go. Her magical attacks can 'change' her into an even bigger and stronger form- she has lifted whole buildings before.

Her purification attacks are hug based, (palm! Hearts! Think how that would feel in a hug!) and she is a big softie and very caring.

She feels a bit insecure when not in a group, because she's always been fighting to protect others, and following others. It's one of the few times she's emotionally unsteady as well, as she's always there to support everyone else.

[kirric-the-fan]

Cure Swift outfit (Cure Royales). Cure Swift is a flautist, and her magic comes from her magical flute/wind/air/sound. Yes, she can also move fast like her namesake. The birds on her outfit are an amalgamation of that type of bird, not the exact depiction.

The final (maybe-ha(!)) full collection of the team:

Cure Surface, Cure Special (lead), Cure Steady, Cure Sunfire.

[kirric-the-fan]

Managed to make the tweaks on Cure Surface's outfit, AND scale it to match Steady's (who is one of her teammates). (OC cures, Cure Royales). Later edit: added a rough version of Cure Sunfire's outfit too!

Even Later Edit: Included Cure Swift's outfit, and at this rate I'm going to have the whole team before long. Am still working on reverse of Swift's outfit.

Cure Steady main outfit upper left, Cure Surface main outfit upper right, with updated version on the rhs. Those metallic bits are mirror-shiny on Surface btw, but are almost friend-given extras: Surface is almost blind (very short sighted if she has any visual perception, a naturally occuring thing with her eyesight degrading over time. The modern technology has actually managed to slow the degradation in her present day form), but those reflective surfaces can help her 'see' an area. She wears a purple ribbon around her eyes, tied in a bow at the back of her head, on which another 'dish' sits. Sometimes the reflective bits can be blasted off her outfit, reducing her capability to sense what's going on. Which is fair, because those dishes actually give her eyes in the back of her head otherwise, and she is Extremely perceptive.

Can start to see some of the repeating elements here now. Cure Sunfire breaks this a little (edited later to a more different outfit that fits in with the others better), because she is a firebird fairy normally (she does have a human form, but doesn't use it as much as the other fairy cures do.) Her outfit is on the bottom left. Her ribbon and buckle motif sits at the nape of her neck, imitating fire/wings/feathers. Her outfit dress starts long, but has a short version for easier movement (see line on dress). The smaller version depicts the back of her dress. There is a decorative open bit on her back underneath the ribbons. Cure Swift also breaks the themeing a little, but her ribbon decoration lies in her hair:

Her outfit is heavily kimono themed, v traditional. She happens to be a flautist, and as a magical girl, her flute becomes her magical wand/weapon. Like she'll swing the flute around and streaks of magic will come out for attacks etc. She can also use the flute to draw trumpets and other brass instruments into being for more...offensive attacks. The most magical part of her outfit is that her hair never seems to get in the way despite being nearly completely loose.

[kirric-the-fan]

Reference pics for my precure oc, Cure Steady. Second pic ignore the fact that it's black and white, that's just to show up the layout + ruffles (updated with actual colors Feb 24). Yellow is bare shoulders. Actual colouring is green-grey-white of pics 5+6 (6 being the doll divine one). Blue dotted line in pic 5 just to highlight the stealth heart shape in her outfit. (Heart shaped wrap around skirt) (also echoes the stealth bow on the top half with those ribbons and off-shoulder pads) (yes the outfit looks very armor-like, that is intentional)

She has the Cure Black/early cure boots & legwarmers, and the fingerless gloves and armwarmers too. Instead of a heart (or butterfly or flower or whatever) on the back of the hand, hers sits hidden in the palm like a protective paw pad (roughly illustrated on cure bloom there, also with the ruffles that come out over the hand a bit too). It is typically hidden from view, but symbolically something she always holds close. (Steady is a big hugger, and the hearts also add into that)

[kirric-the-fan]

Cure Steady (OC): The character and backstory

Cure Steady was a part of the Cure Royales, an older precure team originally from the Heart Kingdom, ruled by Queen Cure. Steady and the other precure were the knight protectors of the kingdom’s princess and heir, but forseeing great danger and a turbulent life for the princess, Queen Cure sent her and her knights far forward into the future to have the chance to live a more peaceful life with ability to choose who she wanted to be.

They immediately run into trouble, as the villainy they had hoped to escape followed them, but away from the obligations and a lot of the memories of her kingdom, the princess surprises everyone by becoming a precure too, wanting to protect this world. They are eventually able to foil the villains plans to steal the remaining power from the long abandoned Heart Kingdom, but in a fit of rage the villain lashes out at the citizens of Earth instead. In their efforts to stop him one last time, and protect the people, Steady uses up all her magic and turns to stone. The princess uses her power to try and protect Steady’s heart, then sets out to seek a way to bring her back.

When Suzuki (Cure Memory) comes into the picture, the town is under the thrall of a different enemy and cannot speak freely about the precure, so what they did has been largely forgotten. Suzuki spends a lot of time hanging out on and around Steady’s statue, and talks to her a lot. She even makes flower crowns for her. Suzuki has no idea what precure are, or that Steady might be a real person, but this is kinda her safe space, someone to talk to, open up to.

When Steady is eventually restored, she is now an adult, and has enough vague memories of all the times Suzuki talked to her to feel like she knows her, and feels like she wants to protect her. She ends up with a proper mother-daughter relationship with her, even adopting her. Turns out Steady has a strong motherly-type protective vein, especially around younger cures, and has to be dissuaded from spontaneously adopting all the other cures when there’s all stars stuff.

(on the flip aide of this, I think in my notes I made a joke of how Suzuki, who has 0 mothers/mother figures at the start of the series, ends up with at least eight.)

Even though the other Royale cures are still nowhere to be found, Steady can transform still, and readily helps the Memory cures in their fight.

By the time Steady reappears, the others are gone, and she becomes quite an independent cure, still dedicated to protecting the people of Earth.

Steady’s attacks are strength based. She is a stronk cure, hard to move when she’s holding the line.

A lot of her fighting is physical, and she can often be seen physically stopping monsters and debris, as well as saving people. Those heart pads in her hands get a lot of use.

She’s very good as carrying large numbers of people. She’ll just stack them up as well as she can. Is usually more careful with the non-cures.

She’s strong, but she hates heights. A lot. She often seems steady on her feet, and she is when she’s in action, but you get her in the air...

She can still trip over her feet in unguarded moments too. For a rock/earth themed cure, she sure spends a lot of time faceplanted in it.

She might be a fierce opponent in a fight, but she has a kind heart, wanting to help and protect others.

Magical Attacks:

Power up! A simple upgrade: Steady punches a fist in palm, and can grow to three or four times her former size. This is the form her statue was in, and is big enough to directly wrestle and restrain monsters, or hold shut big doors (like you might find in a castle). She struggles with vertigo on the height change, and that tires her out so she is quite careful when uses this. Will use for intimidation sometimes, much more so once she is working with her daughter. (Memory: “Oh, I didn’t say you were fighting me.” *confused villain noises* Memory: “MOOOMMMM!!!” and then pre powered up Steady comes charging in )

Precure Rock-et smash: Punching a chunk of rock or earth from the ground and punching the magical essence of that rock towards the enemy. This is different to her punching away, or throwing back rocks, which she also does. This is a way to hit people-coded villains with a rock without actually hitting people with a rock. Precure Rock-et barrage is an upgrade that allows her to hit multiple shots from the same rock by magically reinforcing the original rock and holding it in place. Then punching/kicking it a lot.

Steady heart: a connection purification attack. Attack probably isn’t the right word here, as while it looks like an attack at first, there is no violence. Steady has to make contact with the enemy, coming in to land her hand on their heart. This often looks like an attack to break through the enemy’s defences, but they tend to be surprised when they aren’t punted into orbit. Her hand heart pad lies on their heart, and a magical bubble appears around them both that seems to slow things down and create a safe space so they can talk. It also projects calming natural views, highlighting things the enemy might not actually want to destroy. They have a heart to heart, Steady getting through to the source of why they were fighting, and giving them the reasons and reassurance of why they don’t actually need to fight. With monsters it’s usually just an explanation that they’re not what they’re meant to be, and that’s causing them enough discomfort to want to revert. Once they see the reason, Steady calls out “Steady your heart!” and a pink heart of magic expands from Steady’s hand and purifies the enemy. This attack can also occur from a hug version, in which case the hand to heart location is round the back.

Sometimes after a battle, the battlefield doesn’t magically revert (thanks to the enemy’s interference, particularly in the Memory Cures case from Kao-san’s interference). Thanks to the princess, Steady has the capability to fix things like this, which also can be used as a secondary purification attack (although slightly more likely to fail due to the lack of personal connection with the enemy).

She starts by rubbing her hands together, the heart pads generating the first sparks of magic. She then uses her hands to draw out a big heart (two halves) and calls out “Steady, love heart!” She takes a deep stance (or is already on one knee) and throws her arms back, the heart shape flying back through her with more sparks as it splashes her with magic. The large heart shape now sits behind her and folds slightly, as if it were her wings. Big dramatic moment. She then brings her hands forward, palms up towards her target (making contact with the ground if on the ground and aiming towards her target if not in range), throwing the magic to its target as she calls out “Embrace!” The heart shoots towards the target, hits, and spreads, shining bright across the surface and purifying/fixing it.

While Steady belonged to a previous group where she had a duty to protect the princess, the princess made a point of releasing them from that obligation so they could follow their hearts and not her. Steady loved Earth and the people deeply (she always loved deeply) and chose to continue to protect the earth, “the world you love so much as well.”

The princess also used her power to save Steady when she sacrificed herself to protect the people. Chiyoko used the power of her kingdom to protect Steady’s heart, allowing her to survive. Even now, the crown of the kingdom still sits round her heart, allowing her to live and transform like she always used to even though she doesn’t have her gem anymore. Steady has a memory of the princess asking her to look after them (the people) for her.

^^ Cure Steady by @ dryad_druid find their commissions here

Addition to say I have realised that Steady's fear of heights would lead her to be carried a lot by Special (the princess) as she can fly. Steady would have her eyes screwed shut pretty much any time she was off the ground, so it would be a matter of trust that she would be safe.

Steady has a reputation for being robust. While she is pretty much the opposite of active in the air, she's still solidly built enough that dropping a curled up ball of Steady from a height is a valid attack method (Steady has agreed to this, bc however much she hates heights, or even falling, she always wants to be on the ground again.) Steady just holds the curled up ball until she's on the ground again, usually after knocking the monster out. Cannonball! It does take her a moment to get back into the fight though.