#memory cures

[kirric-the-fan]

The Memory Cures: Meet the Villains

The Last Ones: A group of villains determined to eliminate the last of those who trapped them in the town, and all of the joy and delight they created. Every member hates the precure with a passion and seeks to eliminate them and everything they ever stood for. They're seeking a legendary weapon, the arrow of time so they can wipe the precure from history. On a smaller scale, they eliminate memories of items or events (or actual items) to make people miserable or sad (counter to what the precure have built up). Typically the item affected will become the last item of its kind, and also the monster of the week the precure need to defeat. That item is also something that usually brings joy. (the memory cures are about finding joy, and making happy memories)

The villains:

Koori (ice powers) is determined to capture the last fairy in the town.

Nightshade (sleepy pollen and flowers) is determined to stop time. The last tomorrow.

Menace is determined to have the last laugh. Making people miserable. First and weakest of the villains.

Vengeance (Jeff)(fire powers) is determined to wipe out the last precure. Apparent leader.

Memory is determined to wipe out the last emotion, the pain from her memories. (Cure Memory gets her own magic backfired on her, losing her memories. She is ‘saved’ and recruited by the Last Ones, ending up fighting against her former team. She always knows that something is not quite right, but Kao-san leads her to blame that on her former teammates.)

And Kao-san is plotting quietly under it all to eliminate the last barrier stopping them from unleashing raw chaos across all time.

There’s a lot of ‘the last time’ claims bandied around by the villains. The Cures make comments about this, especially when it’s the fourth time they have had a ‘final’ battle with the same general that month.

Typically the villian turns up to steal something away, or is stealing something away and the precure turn up to stop them. They summon the monster, the cures transform and fight, beat the monster and restore it and the memories, and the villain leaves, cursing the precure once again.

On a separate note, I can see one of the villains making the mistake of stealing away all the teddy bears and cuddly toys out of existence once, at which point Mirai and Riko spontaneously Manifest and kick the crap out of said villain until Mofurun and the rest of the cuddly toys reappear. Then they (maho girls) disappear off again. Villain is just left behind on the floor like wtf just hit me?, and the Memory cures aren’t exactly sure what just happened either except that two teenaged witches just appeared out of nowhere and beat up the villain. They just kinda...leave the villain to it. They're not going to fight them today.

Memory wiping the memory of how to make chocolate filled pastries or sweets is also a sure-fire (and probably the quickest) way to bring the entire precure roster together to defeat her. I can just imagine Nagisa waking up, learning that the chocolate cornets are gone, and immediately being on the warpath.

[kirric-the-fan]

Rough outfit design for another precure oc of mine: Cure Joy!

Actually an curesona created by the younger sister of one of my Memory Cures, she has quite an important part in their story.

(Also this drawing style does not convey the sheer amount of delight this kid radiates. She's a bundle of bubbly joy, I swear.)

[kirric-the-fan]

More Memory cures development:

These cures use less direct magic than others, except for their happy memory group attacks. In fact, the most hands on fighter is Serene, and that’s because she’s using martial arts.

This squad is a lot like kkpalm in that respect.

Memory: Energy, Aurora-like attacks (with tree shapes and themes). Also saves physical contact for memory searching and sharing. Others save physical contact for rescues. Most directly magical. Clock themes. Group attacks seem to be an extension of her attacks. Happy memories. Big hand, etc. Time to shine. Eternal blossom. Tree aurora hair figure, blossom stars.

Reverie: Defensive writing. Writer’s block wall defense. Energy blocks from her pensword. Physical shield from pen. Can also do hand to hand as a kicker, uses the penspear to get around. Has a purification attack called a write-off, where she outlines a monster, crosses it out, flips the page and writes that they found a way to not to have to fight anymore, and they all lived happily ever after. Happy ending. Written word figure. Her ‘sword’ attacks reduce the enemies magical power instead of hurting them, filled with the power of dreams.

Express: Creative gear. Makes mechanical monsters to help them. Fights in her stead. Can also use the gear to set traps and cause chaos. Miracle gear! Can use gear as a unicycle bicycle machine to get around in a pinch. Gear can turn earth and stone, and, later on, gravity. Can still fight hand to hand if need be, but not preferred. Mechanical figure.

Serene: Martial artist, so will go hand to hand before she remembers to transform. Sand figure. Cartoon attacks. Bell. Will drop a bell on the enemy.

Connect: Nautical ship theme. Will fight hand to hand with her sail balling up as her fists. Quite a proficient fighter in this respect. Lots of wrapping the enemy up and knocking them together. Vulnerable to being hit. Ship sails figure rising out of the water.

They represent hope, dreams, imagination, delight, and love/friendship respectively.

[kirric-the-fan]

Precure Memories: The older girls

These two. I need to talk about these two goobers as a pair. Because they are a pair (now I've got Connect's design sorted out hopefully for good this time). And they're the two slightly older cures in the Precure Memories team

On the left is Kazumi, Cure Serene. Who's anything but. I've talked a bit about her before. She's a martial artist, but can get a bit...carried away sometimes. She's very cartoonish in her fighting as a Cure. Literally follows the cartoon rules when attacking if they don't change her form proportions. Big and bold, and in your face. Bells (Bell item) and sand. She can actually swim in sand in cure form if need be- like I said: cartoon rules. She punches people by punching an oversized bell into their face. She has another attack that is just her disappearing through a door and then fighting sound effects coming through the door. SHE CAN EVEN PULL OFF THE FAKE TUNNEL AND WHERE'S GRAVITY STANDING ON THIN AIR BITS. CARTOON. MAGIC. MAGICAL GIRL. THIS GIRL IS RIDICULOUS AND I LOVE HER. In her day-to-day life, she's a struggling competitive judoka, who is trying to keep her place at the school and overcome a series of defeats. Her little sister is ill, and up country with some more distant relatives, so Kazumi is fairly lonely at the start of the series, and trying to work out her emotions through physical violence exercise. Which goes about as well as you'd expect.

On the right is Chuchuski. Yes that is a nickname. Her actual name is Taylor, but the nickname stuck thanks to Kazumi's little sister mis-pronouncing her actual surname Tchaikovsky, and being far too cute about it for Taylor to correct her. So she just went with it, and now everyone knows her as Chuchuski. She's the more standoffish of the two. When she's at school and doesn't want to be interrupted when studying or something, she'll wear a mouse ears hairband, and people know to leave her alone (be as quiet as a...). Kinda useful as she is also the current student council president, and is in high demand otherwise. She is quite serious, and a hard worker. She's also fairly perceptive, even if she isn't the most chatty person. She also squeaks when jumped/surprised, which Kazumi likes to demonstrate now and then, much to her chargrin. She is Cure Connect. Her theme is nautical, especially sailing, "dancing between the sea, the sun, and the stars." She loves the sea, sailing, and ribbon dancing (incl aerial silks, the acrobatic one). Sundial item- literally just a triangle of metal, but it grows into a sail to start her transformation, and can also be used as a brooch or nail to fix the top of her outfit sail like a grappling hook. It sometimes even becomes a surfboard. Sails and sea theme. The big white sash across her front can and does magically become a sail which she can manipulate easily with flowing dancing moves, and even throw it into magical attacks (regenerating another one for rapid-fire). She has lots of flowing movements. Also some other sailing and surfing moves as well (she is obsessed with the sea irl, at one point even to such an unhealthy level that she was boarded so far inland so she could focus enough to study.) Cure hairstyle is lots of tightly gathered braids. (But a single rattail in civvy form)

These two are friends in a way that almost seems to not be, the way they know each other so well. Their relationship is in a bit of a rocky patch at the start of the series, but Chuchuski knows it's just because of some of the things Kazumi is going through, and is working in other ways to help her friend get through it. She is the one who asked the headmaster to transfer Suzuki to their school to try and help cheer her up (Kazumi knew her when she was a little younger, in a big-sister way). She keeps an eye on them, even when they don't know she's helping. She doesn't need them to know. Kazumi, once she gets over her initial season coldness towards Chuchuski, is good friends, and is just about the only person who will happily rib the student council president. In fact, she makes a delighted point of doing so. Kazumi is quite the joker.

Connect's sail does have a more clean straight lined edge, and will magically float up behind her head when filled, usually when feeling magically or emotionally pumped up (it can also droop with fatigue, or emotion, or after a particularly heavy beatdown). It tends to dramatically frame her head with a sharp triangle sail shape.

Cure Serene can swim in sand.

She absolutely grabs Connect at least once to join her and sneak up on someone with her sail acting as a fake shark fin. Connect protests ofc, but she can't help herself being dragged along because she knows how insistent Kazumi can be. Chuchuski does know the difference between the "this'll be fun" harmless fun and the "this'll be fun" "Kazumi NO! That is a WAR CRIME!" and oh shit I'm going to have to stop you punching someone you shouldn't.

Basically Chuchuski acts as Kazumi's voice of reason, otherwise she will let her heart and head get away with her.

These two have a joint attack called Happy Days, and it's entirely wedding themed, with them as the couple. I'm not saying they're a couple, but if Rikka and Mana are wives, these two are twenty years married with kids. They may not be the most outwardly romantic pair, but they still care a lot for each other, and that shows in their actions in many little ways.

Quirks of their magic: Thanks to the slightly physics-defying of their magic, the memory cures can approach problems slightly differently to other cures. If they come up against a tall cliff, Memory would climb it (just likes climbing a lot), Serene would race her (metal hands able to grip), Connect would use her sail as a grappling hook and climb that, Express would use her gear to create a little mechanical elevator type thing to ride up the cliff, and Reverie would sigh, make a comment about them overcomplicating everything, before drawing a doorway with her pen that somehow miraculously opens up a route straight to the top.

Of course any of the others cures would probably just jump straight up. The most obvious solution isn't always the first one these five go for.

I've mentioned Connect climbing the sail like an acrobat- she does that the other way as well. I can imagine her charging off a cliff to try and save a falling Serene, only to stop the other end, upside down wrapped in the silk held up just short of the ground when it turns out that Serene took a safe landing in some sand she summoned.

Connect is just hanging there waiting for her to resurface and being very unimpressed and judgemental that her emergency rescue attempt had been so unnecessary. And Serene just pops up half out the sand, fluttering her eyes, propped up on her elbows like some casual swimmer, Definitely Not Flirting as she winds Connect up and completely ignoring the fact that she's in sand and that Connect's doing a spiderman.

Once Connect has joined the team and they're all there, they find that collectively they have the ability to summon a flying ship. Memory (trees) creates the planks, Connect the sails, Express the rudder and wheel, Serene the ships bell, and Reverie the wings and magical doodling bits in between. It impresses the other cures at the all stars meets, and is particularly useful for travelling between magical worlds.

At some point the team get a sixth cure, who I'm keeping under wraps, but at this point she'd be the one on the megaphone "Good afternoon everyone, this is your Captain speaking. Welcome aboard the Happy Memory. Please pay attention to any safety announcements, and make sure to keep your hands, items, and fairies within the decks at all times. We hope you have a pleasant flight!" She immediately gets grabbed by Connect's sailcloth, wrapped up and pinned to the front of the ship as a figurehead. "Hey! No, wait!"

Connect: "Show of hands who wants me to be Captain?" The rest of the memory cures immediately stick their hands up with a "yeah!". 6th cure over the bow somewhere: "This is mutiny!" She continues to protest but everyone just gets on with it, leaving her there to stew. This is Connect's ship after all.

Each of the Memory cures is related to one or more styles of timekeeping device:

Cure Memory: Trees and seasons

Cure Reverie: Calendars, diaries and candle clocks

Cure Express: Mechanical clocks and watches

Cure Serene: Sand timers, (also clock bells)

Cure Connect: Sundials, sun and stars, and water clocks

Their attacks also relate to things that make happy memories:

Memory: Funfair, theme park. Has a rollercoaster themed purification attack.

Reverie: Dreams and stories. Fantasy

Express: Toys and joy

Serene: Cartoon entertainment

Connect: Fun, sea and sun, watersports, and that sense of freedom

Sixth ranger: Food, and sweets.

[kirric-the-fan]

More OC cures

Finally done the last pic for the main four of my second squad of oc cures: The Memory Cures, a set of cures themed around time and clocks.

Left to right: Cure Memory, Cure Reverie, Cure Express, and Cure Serene!

Serene is funny, because she seems nice and peaceful, but actually she's the most hands-on violent of the team. Those sleeves are rolled up for a reason. She clonks people in the face with a giant bell. She has an attack that entirely takes place behind a closed door with just the sounds of the fight coming through cartoon-style. She is big-sister protective, with a wicked sense of humor and a short fuse with those who anger her or endangers those she cares about. She's a high-level judoka working hard to be a professonal athlete, but her temper keeps getting the better of her.

In fact, a common theme with these cures is that their Cure names are their deepest desires of what they want to be/embody, not necessarily what they are.

[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.

[kirric-the-fan]

Memory Cures (complete):

L to R: Cure Memory, Cure Memory (First/bud form) with Kibou (fairy), Cure Reverie

Cure Express, Cure Serene, Cure Connect

Memory: aka Cure Now that's what I call a grow up. (I re-did a really early 'young' version of her form. I was quite pleased at how it turned out. Her bigger second form is considered her default as it isn't technically a special as she directly transforms into that once she's got it.)