Name: Pudding Potts
Nickname (if any): Puddin
Age: 22
Theme Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwLRQn61oUY Confident.
Class: Contestant

Character Visual: Natalie Dormer


Appearance/Distinguishing Features:

Puddin is a 5'7 blond woman with an athletic build (though on the skinny side of healthy) and blonde hair shaved on the left hand side of her head.  She is pretty with fine features and a somewhat pouty mouth that almost has cat like qualities.  Her eyes are slightly almond shaped and are a  pale gray blue.

Puddin's walk is usually fairly hunched, used to hiding her features and physicality under hoodies and raincoats. She keeps her hands to her pockets, watching her back.  Her eyes keep moving and her overall nature is fairly sharp as if she expects to be jumped at every turn.

Her clothing and hair rougher and edgy look.  She keeps her scalp beneath her hairline on the left hand side smooth and sleek, and she sometimes braids her hair along that line.  Her clothing is a mixture of layers.  Leathers, denim, lace, she is eclectic in what she wears- mostly because it is scavenged, but there is always a raw edge to it.  When she's nervous, she tends to pick at her jeans, leaving frayed holes along the tops of her thighs.

Despite her hair and clothing Puddin's makeup is light.  When she chooses to wear it, it is understated with mostly eye make-up, mascara, and lip gloss making up her entire makeup kit.

Personality:
Puddin is a caring person if she ever lets down her armor long enough for you to see it.  Deep down she doesn't want people to suffer.  More than once, she's put herself at risk because she's chosen to help a starving kid or family on the street rather than keep what she stole to herself.   Naturally Puddin is quiet- she prefers to be around people but does not force her voice to be heard.  She is smart, but had to drop out of school early in order to eek out a living.

She is pragmatic almost to a fault.  Long years on the streets have made her somewhat jaded.  While her heart often yearns to help.  After being burned several times, her head now usually wins and she walks away.

Puddin is not afraid of a fight.  She's been a currier for the black market since she was fifteen, and it doesn't take long to learn how to defend yourself from dogs, rats, and other humans.  She knows when to fight, when to run, and when to do both at the same time.

Occupation: Black Market Courier-- Trash Collector

Special Talents: Street survival, Finding Shelter, Making fire, Scavenging Food, Bare Knuckle boxing.

History:
Puddin Potts was born in the slums.  Her mother died of a hemorrhage forty-five minutes later.  Her father walked out the door two hours after that, leaving her in the care of his sister-in-law.  He was never seen again.  To her knowledge she has a couple dozen siblings scattered throughout the city and none of them got so much as a 'how do you do' from their father.  There is no family loyalty as you would expect- just a knowledge that their father is a bastard and a nod upon passing.

Fortunately, Puddin's Aunt Mathas was more like her Mother and less like her Dad.  Mathas did her best to raise Puddin.  Much of that meant dropping off the young Puddin with the elderly landlady in return for doing her laundry when she was finished cleaning office buildings at the end of the day.  The upside of this lifestyle was that Mathias' house often smelled of soap and cleanliness.  The downside was that the landlady took all the money she made for child care and rent.  Puddin learned early how to deal with hunger and the need for sleep.

Mathias tried to give Puddin an education, but shortly after turning 13, Puddin's aunt fell down stairs in an office building and ruptured two disks in her back.  If there wasn't money for food- there wasn't money for medical care.  For a while Mathias tried to keep working, but after her rate slowed down to a crawl, she lost her job.

At 14 Puddin left school to find work.  She lucked into a job garbage collecting- as one of the cleaning ladies who worked with Mathias had a brother in the trade.  For the first six months Puddin hauled trash, but shortly into the second half of the year, she was approached to be a currier.  No one pays any attention to the trash.  The underground network uses/used Puddin to move items to clients and to pick up items from clients all in the guise of it being the trash.

She and the other "trashmen" live a dangerous life.  There are many unsavories and upstanding types who know who she is and would love to walk off with some of her contraband.
For that reason- she's learned to defend herself.  Notably she's good at simply using her fists.  She's good at parkour and when push comes to shove she can run and run fast.

Family:
Aunt Mathias- currently in a wheelchair and needing several operations she can't afford. The past eight years has not been kind to the woman and she's picked up a bad cough.

Nicholas Potts- Father.  No idea where he is, probably making more siblings for her to share the city with.

Scattering of Potts offspring.  Several dozen of them at varying ages throughout the city and in the cemetery.

Mother- Dead

Likes and Dislikes:
Puddin has a sweet tooth that she rarely gets to indulge. She has a fondness for grapes and other sweet fruits more than for pastries like donuts.  Those can usually be found in the trash- but fruit is usually spoiled and inedible when she finds it.

Puddin likes a good fight and a good run.  There's a certain energy that is put out and the adrenaline rush is always a treat.

Puddin enjoys finding something good in the trash.  It doesn't happen often, but sometimes something really good is found in her cover job.  Using her connections she can sell it and use that money to try and help her Aunt.

Puddin dislikes the cold and the wet.  Puddin has spent numerous times out in the rain and the elements overnight.  While she can withstand it- she hates it.  It puts her in a foul mood.

Puddin hates rats. She's been around them enough, she's eaten more than a few, but she hates the little buggers.

Worst Fears:

Her fears are not Rats nor being stalked or jumped- these are normal occurrences for her and while she doesn't like them they don't make her afraid.

However- Wide open spaces make her nervous to the point of manic anxiety.  She's always lived in the lower levels of the city, thus when she no longer has walls on all sides, it messes with her head.

Puddin is also afraid of extreme heights.  She's only found herself above five stories a handful of times, but suffers from vertigo.

Because of her Aunt's accident, Puddin is bothered by stairs.  She has a image in her mind of falling down stairs leaving herself paralyzed and unable to take care of herself. Because of this she is exceedingly careful when it comes to stairways.

Additional Information:

I have in mind that Pudding might have entered the trials at the request of her "bosses" in the black-market.  It wouldn't be surprising if they are members of the resistance.  I don't think she'd make that connection nor become part of the resistance.  She is a scrambler and all about survival.