Match of the Millennium

Constance Louise Coalbridge is the daughter of John and Margaret Coalbridge, an English couple whose family wealth was made in high-end clothing, known for their strong affiliation with conservative politics. As such, she had all the advantages of wealth, including private education, private medical and dental, and a general lack of want. She was quite content with her life until her early teens, when she started to develop strong feelings toward the environment and animal welfare. Ideological clashes with her parents mounted, and she decided after finishing her A-levels at 18 to take a gap year, in part as an excuse to avoid going into the business program her father was pushing her toward and thereby committing to running their company in the future. The other part was a desire to see the world, meet new people, and party. She set off with an allowance and tentative blessing from her parents.

What followed for Constance (now preferring to go by Coco) was an international tour through France and the Mediterranean to the Caribbean and eventually southeast Asia. She started learning Muay Thai while in Thailand, mostly as an excuse to keep fit and surround herself with athletic (and frequently shirtless) men. It was in southeast Asia that she decided to visit a factory owned by her parents, where she realised that the conditions of the people indirectly working for her parents were horrific, and - even worse, to her - animals were being cruelly captured to be used in their products. She was even more appalled when she called her father and was told to drop the issue, and practically destroyed when her mother echoed the sentiment.

The next night, on the full moon, Constance joined in a Full Moon party in Koh Phangan, where she ended up drinking herself into a stupor. The next morning, she woke up in her hotel room, surrounded by mostly-empty bottles and a snoozing binturong. The creature seemed content to hang out with her, and she couldn't figure out where it had come from. When she tried to return it to its natural habitat in the wild, it refused to leave her - probably because it had gotten used to her feeding it. She decided to adopt it as a pet.

By this point, the gap year was coming to an end and Coco's money for the trip had run out. She decided to travel to one last festival in Southtown, thinking she'd try and find an excuse to stay once she was there. However, the festival turned out to be an International Fighting Festival rather than a massive party. Coco was disappointed until she heard about the New Fighting Generation - an opportunity for brand new fighters to get their living expenses paid for nearly a year, and all she'd have to do was put some of her Muay Thai training to use. It would mean over six months of not having to go crawling back to her parents. And the way she figured, if she was picked, the others would all be newbies who were mostly there to look good for the cameras, right? It's not like she'd have to work hard or worry about /actually/ getting hurt...