Totter

Totter, real name Totter, is a semi-retired mercenary living in the forests along the border of Victoria. To repay a favor, he left the forests and came to the battlefields of Londinium at great personal risk. After the incident concluded, he chose to occasionally participate as a sniper in Rhodes Island's fieldwork.

Imaging tests show the indistinct outlines of internal organs, obscured by abnormal shadows. Originium granules detected in the circulatory system. The subject is confirmed to be infected with Oripathy.

[Cell-Originium Assimilation] 7.8%
Large distribution of crystals at the left ankle.

[Blood Originium-Crystal Density] 0.24u/L
Totter's condition is mostly stable and shows no signs of deterioration for the time being, however the infection on his ankle has impacted his mobility to some extent.

The number of days a year Totter spends on the landship can be counted on one hand. Besides coming in for mission reports and routine inspections, he spends his time either tucked away at his cabin in the Victorian forests or out participating in missions.
He has not interacted with many operators, but among those who have gone on missions with him, not a single one will deny his observation skills and execution abilities. Any mission he participates in will see a markedly increased chance of success, as he organizes tricky mission objectives and breaks them down into clearly structured sub-objectives based on their priority. Following these mission plans often achieves good outcomes for the team. Though some have criticized his methods as being inflexible, this is the best option available to him due to his limited stamina and restricted mobility.
After experiencing the Londinium incident, Totter decided to fully retire, leaving behind his bloodstained past and returning to the uninhabited forests of northern Victoria, living off the land as a hunter. Nowadays, he looks calm and at peace, discussing the happenings in his life in a lighthearted manner. The heavy smoke, smell of rust and disinfectants, and unending screams that once dominated his life have gradually receded, replaced by firewood, hot tea, the smell of pinewood, and the crunching sound of tree branches under his feet.
However, from time to time Totter's straightforward manner of doing things will remind us that the things which have long taken shape within his bones are just waiting for a chance to emerge again. No matter if he is willing or not, that will not easily change.

The instructor opines that Totter is a natural-born sniper. Under ideal weather conditions, his long-sightedness allows him to easily see targets a hundred meters away, track the target's slightest movements with the naked eye, and make a decisive judgement to take them down.
The hunting skills he acquired in his youth became a great foundation on his path to becoming a sniper. He was born in a small, remote rainforest tribe in Sargon, far away from civilization. The hunters in the tribe had passed down their skills from generation to generation, accumulating a wealth of hunting knowledge. Totter's father was also an experienced hunter of the tribe, and passed on their skills of identifying the terrain, predicting the weather, and picking out prey to a young Totter. Totter lived up to the tribe's expectations, quickly picking up those skills and standing out among his peers. Besides that, Totter also possessed a trait that allowed him to become a distinguished hunter—patience. In the hot and humid rainforest, lying dormant and waiting quietly is a nearly impossible task, but Totter was able to rely on his extraordinary patience to lie in wait for an entire day for his prey to come into range. This would also prove to serve him well in his life as a mercenary.
After entering adulthood, he traveled across Sargon, Columbia, and Victoria as a mercenary for hire, venturing into all kinds of places and participating in all sorts of complicated battlefields. To kill his target, he would lie in wait alone for days, deep in the mountains in the harsh winter, or crouch unmoving in the boiling hot sands of the desert under the brilliant sun. Totter never included these extremely boring, difficult, and lonely waits in his reports, merely ending them with a simple 'Mission Complete.'
Totter is quite particular in his choice of weaponry. His arm strength is good, and the arrows he carries are modified versions of the specialized hunting arrows his tribe used to hunt large targets. These large and powerful arrows have been used multiple times on the battlefield to ease the burden on frontline operators, and their efficacy is obvious.

'Totter, your glasses are ready, do you want to try them on? You will feel a little dizzy at first, and that is completely normal. Just stand up and have a little walk, and you'll get used to it.'
'Yes, my vision's very clear now.'
'What is it? Why do you keep looking at me?'
'I see a little piece of gunk in the corner of your eye, it's reflective too.'
'... That's my highlight.'
'Sorry, I didn't mean it like that.'
'Never mind, why am I even talking to you about this...? How is it, is there anything you want to do now that you have glasses?'
'Read a book, I suppose? I haven't read one in a long while.'
'That's a good idea. I didn't think you were a person who enjoyed reading.'
'I don't. The text in them is so small and packed together, my eyes get tired quickly.'
'Are you making fun of me?'
'That's not it. Yesterday, I encountered some operators in the meeting room discussing the books they'd recently read. The discussion was in full swing and they appeared to be having a lot of fun.'
'Someone noticed me and invited me to join them. But I don't read books, and my cabin only has a very old radio. It sounds terrible and I only use it to listen to weather forecasts.'
'So I could only listen to their discussion in silence. I didn't understand most of what they said, but it sounded very interesting to me.'
'So you found their discussions interesting and wanted to have a read yourself?'
'No, that's not it.'
'When the sharing session ended, I intended to leave quietly, but a girl stopped me and handed me a book. She told me that she wanted to hear my thoughts on it. She also said... she was looking forward to seeing me again next time. The others told me the same thing as well, each and every one of them.'
'Totter, when was the last time you left your cabin?'
'About half a year ago.'
'Have you been alone all that time?'
'Yes.'
'...'
'Please remember to avoid reading under dim light when you return, it's bad for your eyes.'
'Alright, got it. Thank you, Doctor.'

Totter never hides his love for snow in front of others. He has a room in his cabin used exclusively to store his collection of snow globes, and the crossbow he carries everywhere also has snowflake ornaments on it. He even secretly includes expenses for buying snow globes in the receipts he sends us.
Based on the exchange records, Totter attributes his love of snow to a snowflake specimen he saw as a young child, left behind by a Victorian merchant caravan passing by the rainforest tribe. Its intricate design led Totter to long for the snowy vistas the merchants described to him, and also evoked his imagination of the lands outside. From then on, Totter changed his mind about staying in the tribe and decided to leave his home after coming of age.
However, that which starts from a single snowflake will inevitably be buried by layers of thick snow.
After leaving his home, Totter met and befriended some close friends, and they formed their own mercenary squad. After taking in many trained combat personnel, the squad gradually took shape and started to gain fame. Just as everything was going swimmingly and everyone was filled with hope, a freak accident caused half the squad to perish. Totter himself was infected with Oripathy in the incident, and lost almost all his mobility. Unable to keep up with the others, he was left behind deep in a forest. Being close to the Snow Realm, that forest was often hit by sudden blizzards, turning what was once a sunny day into one full of heavy hail and frost.
Totter once admitted that he fell into a deep depression for a long time after leaving the mercenary squad, until one day when he was lying drowsily in bed due to the effects of his pain medication. The howling wind of the blizzard outside had gradually died down, leaving the area in silence as a single beam of sunlight shone on his closed eyelids, waking him from his nightmares. As he glanced towards the window, on the pure white forest floor outside stretching into the horizon he saw several thin and leafless fir trees stabbing viciously into the cloudless blue sky. Miraculously, Totter felt nothing but peace from this sight. He no longer felt pain and sorrow from being left behind, and was finally able to accept and feel relief towards the misfortunes that had befallen him.
However, during that conversation, I noticed Totter kept his eyes on the floor, and licked his lips several times. It was obvious that he was hiding something. Despite my questioning, he stubbornly refused to reveal anything to me, and even began to avoid conversing with me.
Totter's behavior worries me. Perhaps he buried more than pain and despair within that snow. I couldn't help but come to a horrifying thought. Did he really manage to walk out of that flawless snowfield, that bitterly cold winter?

'I'll put some more logs on the fire. You look like you're about to freeze solid.'
After handing you a cup of hot water, he turns to fiddle with the wood in the fireplace. The flames within emit a happy crackling sound as they burn bright red.
'How far did you walk from the landship to here? Two kilometers? Three?'
You do not answer him, instead lifting your cup and blowing lightly. As you warm yourself in the hot steam, the snow on your eyebrows melts and drips down your face.
'Thank you for coming all this way to see me. Want some bean soup?' A hanging soup can clatters as he sits himself down with a bowl of his own, not waiting for your reply. He forgoes any semblance of table manners, instead gulping down the soup without much chewing.
'You don't need to worry about me, I'm fine.' He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand as he states solemnly.
'The winter here is not that scary... Those who survive the loneliness are not afraid of the cold.'