Lieutenant Mei Yoneme

Character Information

Gender		Female
Species		Human
Age		30

Physical Appearance

Height		5'1
Hair Color		naturally dark brown, but prefers to dye it red
Eye Color		blue
Physical Description		Mei is a short Japanese woman with slightly longer than shoulder length hair which she keeps at shoulder length by tying the excess into a side bun.

Family

Spouse		none
Children		none

Personality & Traits

General Overview		Mei has a very assertive personality. She puts forth a professional and confident attitude and outwardly appears sure of herself and her abilities as a pilot. Though she may come off as brash to those who don't know her, those that do will find that she has a softer and more sensitive side that believes she is exaggerating her abilities.
Hobbies & Interests		-Earth ground cars -Toge racing -Playing the Piano

Personal History

Mei Yoneme was born in Gunma prefecture, Japan in 2367. Growing up, Mei was often perceived to be a delinquent because of her facial structure, particularly her eyes. As a result, Mei developed a brash, self-assuring personality to match. If she was going to be seen as a delinquent, she might as well act the part. One of the few kids who didn't avoid Mei was a girl named Shiki Wakana. Like Mei, Shiki was also cast out among her peers. Though, in Shiki's case, this was due to her crippling social anxiety. Though the two girls seemed like polar opposites, they formed an alliance starting in middle school, and became close friends as the years went on. As Mei and Shiki grew older, they found that the Gunma area was in the midst of a resurgence of an ancient Japanese pastime: Ground car based toge racing. From the Myogi NightKids on Mount Myogi, to Mount Haruna's mysterious Eight Six, to (perhaps most important to the two young women) the Takahashi brothers of Mount Akagi. One night, Mei and Shiki traveled to Mount Akagi to see the brothers they had read so much about in action, and after witnessing their signature tandem drift, both of them were hooked. Not too long afterwards, Mei and Shiki began a journey to carve out a niche for themselves in the toge scene. Shiki at this time was interested in joining Starfleet, but wanted to make a name for herself and join Gunma's growing list of legends before moving on to the next phase of her life. Together, Mei and Shiki acquired an old Subaru Impreza, and began running on an otherwise forgotten mountain pass in it. With Shiki behind the wheel and Mei navigating, the duo quickly built up a reputation and brought racers back to their home course. First to challenge them, then to learn from them. With people to actually run against, Mei and Shiki were able to hone their own skills through this exchange as well. They even heard rumors that Ryosuke Takahashi had been spotted observing some of their runs- potentially to recruit them into his expeditionary team. However the rumors never amounted to anything. It was halfway during the time of Project D that Mei began to notice that Shiki was losing her drive to keep racing, and sat down with her one day to find out why that was. Shiki revealed to Mei that she had been accepted by Starfleet Academy, and she could only delay for another year. Devastated, Mei decided to abandon helping Shiki inside the Impreza, and instead turned to pushing her from outside it, acquiring a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI, Mei became the rival to break Shiki's complacency in her abilities. Now as individual racers, the two pushed each other to become better until finally Shiki could delay Starfleet no longer, and shipped off to San Francisco to attend the Academy. Without Shiki, Mei's drive to keep racing fell apart, and soon, she too began looking into joining Starfleet. She began studying for the Academy entrance exams. Eventually taking them at Starfleet Academy's Tokyo satellite campus. Thanks to her advance study of the exam, Mei passed with flying colors, and was accepted into Starfleet Academy. When Mei arrived at Starfleet Academy in San Francisco, she found that Shiki was already a year ahead of her, but nonetheless, Mei was happy to reunite with her friend, and between courses, the two women repaired their friendship, which had been strained over the last several years.