#when astarion is wracked with guilt later and confessing that he's been manipulating her this whole time and he feels bad abt it

[cannibalisticskittles]

amity enjoys feeling useful and helpful -- deeply, pathologically so -- but she's... not actually all that susceptible to praise because she doubts it, as a rule

you try plying her with compliments and she thinks 'aww, that's not true at all, but you are sweet to say so :)'

she recognizes when people are trying to butter her up/otherwise manipulate her into doing something, but there's no negative feelings attached to it -- she's still gonna help you. would be nice if you didn't feel like you had to go through a whole song and dance to get her help, but she knows that's how these things tend to go and that this sort of preamble tends to be expected first. and if you really want or need something done for you, it's only natural to try to get people to help you, right? can't fault you for manipulation attempts.

you don't have to genuinely believe she's beautiful or clever to deserve her help, and if you say you think she is, well. it's not true, obviously. but it's clearly born out of your better nature to say so. you are choosing to say something kind, even if you don't really think so.

amity very much believes that who you are is much more what you do than what you think.

this is also why she'll forge ahead in situations that are probably, almost certainly, going to lead to danger or harm -- yes, they are probably just asking her to go on ahead so they can dip and leave her behind. yes, she sees the flash of the knife behind their back. yes, there is very little reason to be acting this way if they do not intend to do her harm.

but it's possible. and she won't crush that possibility.

she will react -- she'll ready a light spell in anticipation of that door slamming behind her and trapping her, she'll tense up and be prepared to dodge. but she doesn't strike first.

it's the scorpion and the frog again -- yes, she sees the inherent danger. but perhaps you will choose to go against those violent impulses. and if not, well, she's pretty good at swimming and she carries around antivenin for just such an occasion, so that she can afford the risk.

this is also why everything with astarion is truly so funny. he comes on so strong with his compliments that amity does not believe a single word of it for even a second. she decides to trust him, but in spite of it, not because of it.

"'beautiful'?? wow he must really be desperate to earn my trust. poor thing. wish he didn't feel the need to lie so egregiously." and the whole thing about 'waiting to have you since the moment i saw you?' no way. there's no truth to it. but that's okay; the purpose of those sort of flowery words is to make the person on the receiving end feel good, so even if she knows it's a baldfaced lie, there's no harm in it, right?