KS Fan Chara Contest - Ayame

Matsuoka Ayame (name is in Japanese order, with the surname coming first)

Birthday:  April 14th (Aries, supposedly)
Blood-type: AB positive
Height: 5' 4"
Weight: 67 kilograms (about 148 lbs)
BWH measurements (cm): 80-59-78
Hair/eye color: see above (picture)
Disability: Laryngeal cancer plus minor lung problems
Class:  3-1

Likes: Anime (especially K-On!, Durarara and Sayonara Zetsubou-Sensei), music (especially playing her bass guitar), the color red, iced tea,  and occasionally writing fanfiction (she is a yaoi fangirl).  She sorta likes running, but can't run too much without wheezing and gasping.
Dislikes:  her father, her voice, spiders, pickles, and the colors grey and brown

Ayame is a second-year high school student at Yamaku Academy.  Her mother is a speech therapist (from whom she picked up a good amount of Japanese Sign Language) and her father is the CEO of a major tobacco company.  While her childhood was pretty good, it was filled with the smell of smoke due to her father's occupation and frequent cigarette use. At the beginning of Ayame's first year of high school, she developed a horrible cough that didn't seem to respond to any sort of treatment. Her family's physician sent her to see a specialist.  He ran some tests and the diagnosis was heartbreaking.  She was diagnosed with...laryngeal cancer, due to secondhand smoke.  In order to relieve Ayame's symptoms (which had grown steadily worse, from a persistent cough to an odd lump in her throat), her mother had her undergo surgery to remove her larynx.

Ayame, having permanently lost her voice, became deeply depressed.  The divorce of her parents and subsequent move did not help her disposition.  She received a top-of-the-line artificial voice (a little handheld thing that she has to press to her throat.  Pitch and inflection are controlled by pressing a button) but that only sounded somewhat natural if she spoke at the highest pitch.  Anything lower had a buzzing sound underneath what she was saying.  And because she was at a new high school, nobody knew her.  Everybody either pitied or shunned her.  After only 2 months, she just stopped going.  She spent much of her time in her room watching anime and teaching herself bass guitar, in an attempt to convey her emotions.  Her mother told her about Yamaku, a nearby school for people with various disabilities.  She liked that idea and transferred immediately.  

Upon entering, she started to feel better about herself, seeing many of the students there getting out and living life, despite being crippled in one way or another.  Upon reaching her room, she decided that she would do something to make herself known.  Inspired by her favorite manga/anime, "K-ON!" she would start a pop/light music group, a band of some sort.  She did hear of this pink-haired girl with a beautiful singing voice currently attending Yamaku...if only she could convince her to join the band... She'd also need someone on keyboard, someone on drums, and a lead guitarist.

Recently, she has kept her grades up and has started to open up to other people.  Now, most people would say she is very quiet and kinda shy, but is friendly to most people.

Ayame would be friendly with Emi (whom she has started to jog with to help her lungs; this is also how she meets Hisao), Rin (Ayame finds her views on life to be interesting, if hard to follow sometimes), Misha, and Shizune (Ayame is not quite fluent in sign language yet, which often leads to  My Hovercraft Is Full Of Eels-type moments).

She is neutral toward Lilly and Hanako because Lilly's blindness forces Ayame to use her artificial voice.  But she does not share Shizune's hatred/rivalry of her because she feels that she is trying to help everybody as best as she can.  Hanako, of course, sticks close to Lilly and sometimes reads Ayame's written messages to Lilly.  She can relate to Hanako and her reluctance to go out in public, which may lead to them becoming friends if she spends more time with them.

She hates Kenji (a lot of people seem to) because he can't read her written messages unless written impractically large.  Also, he seems to think she is some sort of realistic android build by the feminists to boost their numbers.   She sorta hates Muto because he smells of the all-too-familar cigarette smoke.