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Zoey Maid Cafe Waitress Uniform Reference Sheet by Izumi
🕑 Added 2022-10-24 19:37:36 +0000 UTCDrawn by Izumi, this is the reference sheet for the waitress outfit Zoey will be wearing for a part-time job she will be getting later in every route. She first tries to work as a butler at the at a butler/maid cafe near campus from January to early March and experiences remarkable initial success with female clientele, but once her sex is discovered, she is asked to change her uniform to this.
I first got the line art of this on October 6 and was assuming it'd have a light color scheme because I was picturing Zoey being a "moe through helplessness" maid waitress who keeps messing up, but the dark color scheme makes me realize it'd actually kick way more ass for her to be a scary yandere maid waitress and to get a bunch of weird simps who want her to step on them from things like telling customers if they'd like her to write their name on their omurice with ketchup as she stares at them like a serial killer.
I don't yet know how much I'd make Zoey lean into the role, but imagine her making this face as she starts telling a customer to knock it off with trying to stare into her cleavage as she leans over to cut their food, still holding the knife in her hand. She's either losing the customer or she's getting a 50% tip.
While we're at it, let's go into Zach/Zoey's "Ice Queen" mode since I was asked about it in the re:Dreamer Discord server (invite) while revealing the reference sheet.
Zach first realizes he can do this in the Keisuke route by accident (getting really upset at Keisuke for calling him stupid before he reveals his identity to him) and gets the idea to do it from his mom making a threat to Britney over the phone (realizing that his mom has a talent for control from it). It's more likely to come out with higher Control and Emotion, but every version of Zach realizes "oh, I can now scare the shit out of someone when I get upset and get them to act passively around me" and is willing to use it to his advantage as he's been unassertive all his life and he now can be very assertive with this one weird trick doctors hate, but it comes at the cost of making him feel guilty and worried that he shouldn't have this odd talent, especially since he knows where (or who) it comes from.
While Zoey can shut down a fight and up to two people by doing this, she's not an expert at it like her mom and can't control an entire room (spoilers, but see the second half of this post for examples of how Zoey's mom used it in college). It's written as providing a "chilling" effect on people and has keywords to match: Zoey feels like she's "coldhearted" or that "her emotions have frozen over" when she does this, the mode to use the unique font is internally called icequeen for Zach/Zoey and frostwitch for the mom, breaking icicles and freezing SFX usually play when either does this, and on especially chilling episodes, a bit of "Frost" by Enslaved plays for Zoey and "Strawberry Crisis!!" by ZUN plays for her mom (her mom uses an plucky bass acid jazz version of Strawberry Crisis!! by Eichis.s (that isn't on YouTube) as her main theme, so switching to the real theme of the hardest boss in all of the mainline Touhou games shows how frightening she is).
As you've likely noticed, Zoey has "yandere" eyes in the sprite viewer that remove the reflective glow from them.
Combining this with a heavily reduced blush, an overcast "gloom" shadow on the face that further dulls the eyes, and a slight smile creates the frightening face of an emotionless psychopath.
Zach's eyes aren't as red as him mom's, but it is nevertheless an extremely distinct and unique feature and one of the most helpful cards Zach has in proving his identity to someone in his new body (seriously, Zach's deck for proving who he is (conversely, also hiding what has happened to him) has been stacked as much in his advantage as possible with their shared red eyes, Zach and Zoey having a nearly identical facial structure, both looking like his mom, Zoey only losing an inch of height, and Zach having a feminine silhouette in the first place).
In fact, the whole "red eyes" thing is a weird hereditary trait from Zach's grandma. Her eyes were described by Zach's mom as "literally glowing" and Zach's like "okay, so they had a form of bioluminescence?" but nobody really knows what's up with them (the real answer is that Espeon thinks they're cool and I agree, so I came up with a stupid reason for it).
I can't believe I'm going to have to update this image with the big lore drop...
Because Zach's mom's eyes are redder than her daughter's and she's practiced this yandere party trick for years, her eyes do a glowing thing when she gets upset instead of having a reduced glow like Zoey's and she has next to no moral qualms holding her back from unleashing her power level.
So, here's some food for thought as I end this post: If Zach's mom can pull off this demonic glare and chilling effect far better than Zoey can (which will always be the case as she has a genetic advantage of redder eyes and a psychological advantage of being unhinged with OCD, PTSD, and BPD) and yet her mom's eyes were even redder, and if Zach's mom can scare the Hell out of Zach and yet her mom terrorized her so badly that she almost never discusses her or her childhood... how scary was Zach's grandma?
Comments
Dream Team
A bit less pouty and a bit more scary, but that's fairly close.
DarkPhoenix
"but the dark color scheme makes me realize it'd actually kick way more ass for her to be a scary yandere maid waitress and to get a bunch of weird simps who want her to step on them from things like telling customers if they'd like her to write their name on their omurice with ketchup as she stares at them like a serial killer." Something like this? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Qn5AwaqXM
