/tan/ - Board-tans

Cure-chan is an anthropomorphic representation of the very concept of a cure. She was created on October 13, 2014 in a flockdraw on skycow.us as a response to Ebola-chan and her growing popularity, although Cure-chan represents cures in general, not just one to the Ebola-virus.

Cure-chan being framed as a counterpart is obvious from her design: like Ebola-chan, she wears a white nurse uniform with accompanying nurse cap (though hers displays either a blue cross or a caduceus). Often she’s also seen wearing gloves, thigh high stockings and/or a mouth mask (some claim this may be to hide that she’s secretly a youkai, a kuchisake-onna). Originally, she even had twintails like Ebola-chan, although these have since been removed in favour of flowing long hair.

She distinguishes herself however with a few notable contrasts. Her hair is light blue instead of pink, she’s taller, and her figure is intentionally a mature one unlike Ebola-chan’s more childish build.

As far as her personality goes, Cure-chan is fairly normal. She’s driven by a desire to help the sick recover and takes it seriously, but she can come off as distant and aloof in spite of that.

The other cure-tan most closely associated with Cure-chan in her setting is Zmapp-chan. Zmapp looks like a young Caucasian woman who wears a white nurse’s uniform with green accents, a nurse’s cap with a green cross, and white thigh highs. Her hair is green with leaves in it (all probably a reference to the drug being synthesised from the tobacco plant Nicotinana benthamaiana) and is worn in a ponytail or sidetail depending on the artist.

Zmapp-chan is a representation of the ZMapp drug designed to combat Ebola. As such, her enmity towards Ebola-chan is far more personal. Ebola-chan however doesn’t seem to consider her serious competition and generally makes a fool out of her. Although no conclusive data exists on her effectiveness, it’s generally agreed that Zmapp-chan cannot defeat Ebola-chan, but Cure-chan can.

Zmapp-chan has two older sisters, based on failed prototypes. MB-003, also just called Mb, is the eldest sister. She has mouse ears and buck teeth on account of her vaccine consisting of three human-mouse chimeric mAbs. Not having a job to worry about anymore has made her carefree and lazy, and she’s traded in her nurse’s uniform for casual wear. She carries her green hair in a bob cut.

Zmab, based on the ZMAb vaccine, is the middle child. Losing her job has made her uptight, despite since having found a different regular job that has nothing to do with medicine. She worries over her little sister and often clashes with Mb over the latter’s lax demeanour. Zmab no longer wears a nurse’s uniform, instead wearing a casual but presentable outfit consisting of a simple striped sweater and regular pants. As with all sisters of the family, her hair is green, and she wears it in a long ponytail and sharp front- and sidebangs.

Other lesser known characters include Panacea-tan, who may fill a supreme overseer role similar to that of Pestilence or Mother Rot in the disease-tans pantheon, as well as Cure-chan’s older sister Cure-sama. Whereas Cure-chan is supposed to be representative of medicine and drugs, Cure-sama exemplifies the nurse or doctor administrating the treatment. Their similar names, personalities, and looks can make it difficult to tell the two apart, but Cure-sama’s hair is kept in a ponytail with side bangs. She also keeps a pet snake.

The cure-tan setting is not very elaborate in terms of lore, but contains plenty of characters with little to no known personal information, including various tans modelled after healthcare organisations and multiple vaccine-tans.