Eyes of Perception

Chapter 1

Childe's arrival in Liyue was... rough, to say the least.

For one thing, he hadn't expected the nation to be so hot. Sure, he'd done the appropriate research on the nation, enough to know that his usual Fatui uniform, with its fur jackets and long capes, would be far out of place in Liyue. Still, that didn't prepare him for the wave of heat that quite literally crashed into him when he went above deck of his ship upon his arrival in Liyue. Below deck, he'd been granted the cool shade and protection from the scorching sun. Above, he got none of that - instead, he was greeted by a stifling air that was both humid and dry all at once, as if the entire nation of Liyue was doing its best to suffocate him before he even got off the ship. Even the thin uniform he was given by the Tsaritsa herself (glory to the Tsaritsa!) wasn't enough to stave off the heat. 

He also hadn't expected Liyue to be so crowded. That wasn't to say that he was used to cities being empty - Snezhnaya was a bountiful nation, with a prosperous civilization and an ever-growing population - but Liyue was a whole other story. The streets were packed and wherever he turned, he could see dozens of people bustling around, going about their business without a care in the world. That, in itself, was... foreign to him. Though Childe traveled a lot (courtesy of his fellow Harbingers sending him as far away from Zapolyarny palace - apparently, he was too much trouble for them to handle), his roots were still tied to Morepesok. 

The small village seemed even more unimportant compared to the busyness of Liyue Harbor. Where Morepesok was calm, with mostly empty streets and a quiet stillness being considered the norm, Liyue Harbor was bursting with life at every corner, with people rushing back and forth. It was times like these that Childe remembered that people of most nations didn't need to worry about literally freezing to death if they stepped outside. He loved Snezhnaya, he really did, but it was hard to imagine how other nations could be so lively compared to the snowy planes and endless cold he was used to.

His first few days were spent throwing up and lying in a cold sweat in his apartment provided by Northland Bank, because apparently, being in extreme heat for someone who was used to being surrounded by snow was a health hazard that could get people sick. Bullshit. It was as if Liyue itself didn't want Childe to stay there. 

Even when he recovered from his one-week period of getting one heat stroke after another, Childe still couldn't get used to the scorching heat of Liyue Harbor. No matter what he did, he could feel a thin layer of sweat building over his skin, and the sun burning him over and over again. The first time he'd spent a full two hours outside, he'd gotten so sunburnt that he couldn't touch the back of his neck without quietly seething in pain. Usually, pain was something that Childe didn't mind - welcomed, even - but this wasn't his cup of tea. Liyue wasn't his cup of tea.

Two more days into his stay, he was starting to deeply regret accepting this mission. He should've pushed it over to someone else, like maybe Sandrone. Sandrone would be able to handle Liyue's heat just fine. Hell, if it wasn't for the fact that he had a meeting with a Liyue Qixing in a day, he would've called one of the Harbingers over to deal with it instead of him. Surely there was at least someone who owed him a favor. Alas, he was a little too slow - no ship from Snezhnaya would be able to reach Liyue Harbor in time, and missing the meeting would result in an almost guaranteed failure of his mission. Ah, well. He'd just have to suck it up, forge through the mission as fast as possible, and get on his way back to Snezhnaya. 

He later realized that he probably should've spent his time preparing for said meeting rather than getting sick because of too much sun. And to think that all it took to take the Tsaritsa's (long live the queen!) strongest warrior out of commission was a little bit of heat...  But he could worry about that later, when he didn't have pressing matters to attend to.