Jaune was taking a rest from Ren semblance enhancing duties. Fox had explained to them that while he was not certain what the effect of Ren's semblance was on Fox's ability to detect auras it was unlikely to be a positive one. In addition, finding the rogue huntress in training might be helped if she was encouraged to use her semblance again. It had been decided that Ren would only cover the area nearest the damaged gate while the search was in progress. As it was all but the most obstinate civilians had decided to move away from that area, so Jaune could recharge his aura

Jaune was not altogether sure how he felt about his semblance. It was good to know that he had one and that it was useful. However, he was his mother's child and he had not spent two years with her in LGDF for nothing. He knew that the stakes were bigger tonight, and the reality was that both he and Ren had semblances which meant that they were too valuable to waste directly fighting Grimm tonight.

He had told Professor Pink that he would understand if the Professor and the LGDF preferred to use him to recharge auras of the frontline fighters when he was not helping Ren distract the Grimm from the gap in the defensive wall. The Professor had nodded and had thanked Jaune for his understanding of the situation.

Still however tactically right the call was to have him and Ren behind the front lines, there was part of him which felt ashamed about it. Ansel was a "small c" conservative town, and the assumption still was that in the event of a Grimm attack the men fought and the women looked after the wounded and the children. Admittedly this was mixed in with stories about mothers and even grandmothers unlocking their auras and discovering semblances in defence of their children and grandchildren, but still the presumption was the other way.

The fact remained that he and Ren were a few hundred yards from the town walls and had not yet seen a Grimm this afternoon or evening. Meanwhile Nora had been taken under Amber's wing and had been taking on the biggest Grimm the two of them believed that they could take out.

Pyrrha was of course being Pyrrha. It was no surprise to find that her long-distance sniping skills were as good as her close quarter skills. Still even Professor Pink had remarked on the fact that the Grimm had retreated an extra three hundred yards in response was a testimony to how far she outclassed the normal LGDF recruit.

He thought back to a conversation in the student bar at Beacon with Ren and Brede on a night when Yang had organized a girls' night out in Vale for her team and the women in team LLAC and JNPR shortly after Team LLAC had defeated Team JNPR in a fight by a perfectly planned ambush relying on the strengths of the two women on the team. Leslie had gone to spend the night with some friends who Jaune suspected where the two sisters at Junior's bar

All three of them were overshadowed by their female teammates. Jaune was anesthetised to it to some extent because of his sisters and mother, but earlier that evening Cardin had said things which focused his mind on the issue. Unlike earlier in the term, it had not even been particularly a half in fun wholly in earnest joke, but more a reflection that Cardin had been bought up to assume that as a male human it was his job to protest the weaker sex and was finding the suspicion that his cousin could defeat him two time in three hard to process.

Ren was philosophical about things. He was used to Nora being a powerhouse, but the two of them were a team. He was in many ways better at dealing with packs of Grimm than she was while she was most effective against larger solitary Grimm. From what he and Nora had said it sounded as though the two of them had been the strong one of the pair at different times in their partnership.

Brede was wryly amused about it. As a member of the Atlesian aristocracy there was a kernel of self-belief which was invulnerable to self-doubt, and it helped that he had proved himself a few years back fighting Grimm in the deserts of Vacuo alongside his current team leader.

The man acknowledged that the rest of his team would be more valuable in the Vytal festival than him, but that in fighting Grimm he could kill them off at a longer distance than the rest of his team. He acknowledged that Lydia's ability to hit dust grenades with her golf club shaped weapon three hundred yards was pretty nifty as well.

Thinking about it, Jaune felt that the difference was that the other two had faced a real risk of death and had come through it alive and had helped save others. Today using his shield and his aura to help defend the refugees had felt real. He had killed a few Grimm himself and made it easier for others to kill the rest. Intellectually he supposed that helped Ren counteract Raddock's aura and being available to recharge other's auras was potentially as valuable, but it did not feel that way.

Anyway, plenty of time to think about that tomorrow provided they all got through the night.

Ruby and her father had arrived with Fox and Yatsuhashi and the twins and Team ABRN had arrived within minutes of them. His twin sisters, Team ABRN, Ruby and Taiyang had joined Pyrrha, Emerald and Mercury at the gate. The LGDF forces were positioned on the wall ready to use the machine guns and rifles at the charging Grimm.

For the moment, the assault mostly consisted of the younger Grimm who seemed to be testing the defences and encouraging the defenders to use up their ammunition. Even young Beowolfs could overrun ordinary humans and a pack could trouble inexperienced hunters even without an alpha coordinating them. For the moment the charging Grimm were not those who were likely to be able to scale the walls and the defenders had been encouraged to only use their rifles at close range where they could maximise the chances of making a shot count.

He had been taken aback by Fox's semblance although it did explain why Team CFVY had such a high reputation for acing stalking and stealth classes and why three quarters of Team CFVY had a reputation of being quiet. The standard theory was that their leader talked enough for all of them.

Anyway, Pink had quickly instructed the newcomers on their duties. The decision to investigate the area near the wall with the rest of the city had been taken for two reasons. First, if Magenta Raddock was not there then they could immediately evacuate the children and mothers who had agreed to be evacuated. It was frustrating that this would require at least two fighters to be taken out of action for the evening, but this was Kulsa. Second, this was one of the places where Magenta was most likely to be hiding because of the announced evacuation.

The Faunus feared the humans and particularly the human police, while the humans feared adult Faunus. It had taken his father, Jesse Earl, Professor Pink, and the mayor longer than it should have to persuade the humans that children and mothers were not a threat to the humans and the Faunus that the children would be safer in the human district. In the end the reflection that even the most militant humans in Kulsa would hesitate to kill pre-teens and mothers in the presence of the Mistral Broadcasting Corporation's cameras and members of the LGDF had persuaded a minority of parents to take the risk.

Still first it was necessary to neutralise Magenta Raddock. At first this had seemed to be going to plan. Pink had received a scroll message saying that they had located a strong aura in a building near the wall and that they were taking steps to surprise her.

What had taken Jaune aback was that when she was captured, she must have amplified her own emotions with what must have been her last remaining aspects of aura. Ren had instinctively activated his semblance and Jaune had augmented it. It was still not entirely certain what had happened next as suddenly the surge of negative emotions ceased.

Just after that Pink must have received a message from Fox and he had seen the Haven Professor blanch. Pink nodded to himself and sounded somewhat shaken when announced that "Miss Raddock is no longer a threat. I just need to check some details before we can start the evacuation."

Professor Pink then received a call from Beau Earl and did not broadcast it. The suspicion that the news was bad was confirmed when Professor Pink had asked Beau, "Are you certain that you and your brother are in the right frame of mind to fight tonight?"

He listened to the reply and said, "I suppose that you are right on that point. Is your cousin in a fit state to deal with the evacuation?"

Another pause and the Professor said, "I concur. Ask your cousin, Mr. Wukong and Mr. Vassilias to carry on with their proposed role in the evacuation. Get the rest of your team here as soon as possible."

After the call had ended, he turned to Jaune and Ren and said, "One of my students has just killed another one. It is probably best if most of that team remain within the ambit of Mr. Ren's semblance, and they believe that fighting the Grimm will keep their minds occupied. The one member of the team who is still in good mental shape will proceed with the evacuation. Unfortunately, Miss Lavender's team filmed the incident and although we can probably prevent footage being released tonight, I doubt we can avoid it in the morning."

Just then there was a call from one of the LGDF member at the gate saying, "The Grimm are launching a serious charge."

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At the gate Mercury was seriously wondering how on Remnant he could extract himself from this situation. While he could kill Grimm, his training from his father had been focused on killing humans. So far, he had been able to rely on his sniping skills. Luckily that part of his training as an assassin was easily transferrable to Grimm.

He suspected that Pyrrha Nikos had been using her semblance not only on her bullets, but also on his. Certainly, she had encouraged him to take longer shots than he would normally have gone for. He was now almost certain that she had a polarity semblance and decided that he ever went after her he would use non-metallic bullets. His preference would be to suck up to Cinder to ensure that she took on the job personally. He suspected that his classmates and teachers would be disturbed to realise how much time he spent on working out how to kill them quickly. One of the main reasons he tried to avoid winding emerald up too much was that her semblance was incredibly useful for taking people by surprise.

He wondered what Amber Arc and that Nora girl were up to as every so often he saw a bullhead sweep across the plain, two small figures jump out and then a minute or two later, the bull head would get close to the ground and presumably pick the figures up. He assumed that they must be picking off larger Grimm in hit and run attacks. While he had seen that the two of them were heavy hitters, that was a little dangerous for his tastes. He supposed the older woman knew what she was up to and that they were targeting Grimm which she believed they could kill in a short period. Still taking along a first-year student seemed reckless to him, even if he could believe on his short acquaintance so far that she would have been a willing volunteer.

He had welcomed the reinforcements. Team ABRN prided themselves on being primarily focused on Grimm killing despite being seen as contenders for the Vytal Festival while Little Red and her father were clearly well used to fighting Grimm. The twin sisters who he presumed from the fact that they were tall blondes must be yet more members of the Arc family had a relaxed air of professionalism about them.

One slight problem was that there was currently no obvious chain of command once the newcomers had arrived. Beforehand Pyrrha Nikos had in effect been in charge, but as the Grimm charges had been half-hearted while the sun was still in the sky nothing too complicated had been needed. Basically, her and him sniping and Emerald picking off those few Beowolfs which had ventured closer had sufficed.

The older huntsman Taiyang and the Arc sisters had conferred on arrival, and it seemed that it had been agreed that the sisters would oversee Team ABRN, and the older man would take charge of the Beacon contingent plus him and Emerald.

So far, the Grimm attacks had been more exploratory than meaningful, but he knew that this would change once night had properly fallen. Currently there seemed to be about twenty minutes to go before it got truly dark. However, suddenly a loud noise was heard from the open ground and Mercury turned to see that the Grimm were charging.

This was a surprise as there was still a little light and he and Pyrrha could continue to snipe from long distance. Taiyang ordered them to focus on the alphas and to use dust bullets. Similar orders were given by one of the sisters and Reese Chloris flew off on her hoverboard holding a rifle. He had wondered to himself how good Team ABRN were at tackling Grimm as their weapons in combat class seemed generally better suited for fighting humans. The exception was Nadir whose gun seemed perfect for tackling charging Grimm but was the weakest of the team for fighting humans. The answer seemed to be that the rest of the team used rifles to tackle Grimm at a distance and only used their personal weapons at close range

When he and Pyrrha only waited twenty seconds before opening fire, the man had opened his mouth as though to order them to hold their fire until the Grimm got closer. He then registered that the bullets were hitting the Grimm and having an effect. He nodded and said, "Fine. Keep firing towards the rear even when the lead Grimm get closer. There are enough of us with close combat skills to deal with the Grimm who reach the gate."

He had then spoken to Emerald and Ruby. Emerald was directed to stand in front of the broken gate and to take out the Grimm which got closer. Mercury was more bemused by the fact that the girl in red had unfurled her scythe even though the Grimm were still a good two minutes away. He smirked as he recalled Roman's description of it as an overgrown gardening implement.

He then realised that it was also capable of being used as a sniper rifle. He suspected that the dust bullets were somewhat larger than the ones he and Pyrrha were using and wondered how she dealt with the recoil on the weapon. Anyway, she was also picking off alphas at a fair distance and those which had not been picked off quickly thought better off the assault and retreated to await the dark.

The younger and smaller Grimm carried on the charge despite the retreat of the others. Taiyang had reacted by patting the head of Little Red and said, "Take care, my little Grimm Reaper."

He then told Emerald and Mercury to cease fire. What followed suggested that Ruby's style of fighting seemed particularly suited to dealing with young Grimm. She crouched like a runner at the starting blocks and then disappeared behind a screen of red petals. For the next couple of minutes, he saw a red blur zooming through the charging Grimm.

He had previously seen the aftermath of what happened when the scythe was used against fighters whose aura was low. He had not before seen what happened when it was combined with her aura against Grimm. He was glad that young Grimm vanished quickly as he was quite convinced that he would have vomited if the bodies had remained behind.

The young woman returned with another flurry of red petals. He asked, "Where on Remnant did you learn to do that?"

An embarrassed Taiyang sheepishly admitted, "My judgement was not particularly good after her mother died. I chose a beautiful site for her memorial with a marvelous view of the setting sun and the ocean on one side with forests behind it. It is just to get to it we had to travel through the most Grimm infested part of Patch."

Ruby added, "My uncle Qrow taught me how to use the scythe properly."

Mercury remembered ruefully the huntsman who had appeared out of nowhere when Cinder's plan to steal the Maiden powers had been on the verge of total success. He rather hoped that the man would not turn up again. While Emerald had been able to hide their escape from him using her semblance, Mercury would prefer not to spend too much time with the man.

He began to feel a little sympathy for Roman's desire to keep well away from the sixteen-year-old girl. Perhaps another one best left to Cinder.

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Amber had been furious when she heard what had happened at the gate into the Faunus quarter of Kulsa and particularly that a trainee huntress had deliberately endanger the lives of civilians solely because they were Faunus. When the semblance had been explained to her, she had expressed the desire to go into Kulsa and deal with the treacherous piece of excrement herself. Nora was quite impressed by the Yangian level of anger and invective.

Amber calmed down slightly and said to Nora, "No wonder there are so many Grimm around. If she has been activating her semblance for the last three days, then the town will not have been as big a Grimm magnet since the Faunus Wars."

She had then called her mother up and had received permission to concentrate her attention on the Grimm facing the west side of the city and to order the surveillance drones to do the same. She deferred returning to the airport to refuel but ordered the other bullheads to do so.

Nora had been pleased that she had been invited to hunt Grimm with Jaune's sister. Amber had expressed her appreciation of how Nora had dealt with her head of the King Taijitu and had suggested that Nora work with her that afternoon. Ren had signaled that this was fine with him as he expected that he would be being used for semblance duties. Amber had said to Pyrrha that the choice of Nora was no reflection on her, but she was needed for morale reasons inside the walls.

It was odd fighting without Ren by her side or within a short distance. Ever since that day in Kuroyuri when the Nuckelvee had destroyed the small town, Ren's presence had been a comfort to her that nothing bad would ever happen. As it was, she had no real memory of anything before that day and huddling beneath the ruins of the town holding the toy hammer which the shy young boy had handed to her. Occasionally she had dreams about starvation and creeping around trying to avoid being noticed, but when they happened, she just got into bed with Ren and held him tight. He gave her the confidence to be noisy and not care that people thought she was weird and different.

The actual fighting had been rather sporadic, but Amber had explained that she did not have a death wish herself and did not want to have to explain to her brother and the rest of his team that she had got Nora killed. The aim was to surgically strike at Alpha Grimm and Grimm which were capable of burrowing under the city walls.

It turned out that practicing team attacks which involved using Pyrrha's shield to help propel her into the air had been good practice for this type of fighting. The power of a hit from Magnhild was significantly increased by a drop from the air, while Nora had had opportunity to practice her targeting while in free fall. Amber Arc had further explained how to use aura to leap higher into the air than was possible for normal humans and that enabled them to return to the bullhead after a hit and run attack.

The drones were being used to spy out concentrations of Grimm and identify targets. The larger alphas tended to be left alone by smaller Grimm and in addition even smaller Grimm were not too keen on being close to the larger Centinels.

Amber had explained that she preferred to take out Centinels when they were above ground. If that was not possible, she at least wanted to work out where they were heading. The drones could spot holes in the ground, and it was usually possible to see where they were digging tunnels.

Generally, Grimm ignored drones as they were not living creatures and besides which being in the air made them hard for most Grimm to deal with. However, warrior drone Lancers were suspicious of anything else in the air and there was one area of the encroaching Grimm army which it had not been possible to survey.

This was even though warrior drones were easily distracted. Amber had been relying on this since the explosion at the gate. Her tactics included having two other bullheads approaching the Grimm forces and goading the lancers into a futile chase allowing Nora and Amber a clear run at whichever alpha Grimm or Centinels they wished to target. The bullheads carried machine guns and dropped dust grenades which they used to cause casualties among the younger Grimm and to attract the attention of the Lancers.

Still there was a core of lancers which Amber speculated must include a Queen lancer which could not be persuaded to move. They were facing the Faunus quarter of Kulsa. The huntress had noted that and shrugged.

They had finally been returning to the airport for a final refuel and to try out the effect of using a reserve generator on Nora's semblance when a portion of the Grimm forces facing the west of the city had unexpectedly charged the walls before sunset. The alphas had pulled up after a minute and this had given the pair of them a chance for a more sustained attack on the isolated Grimm. They took out five alpha Beowolfs and two alpha Ursa in a matter of minutes.

They then rejoined the bullhead. Amber Arc talked over the bullhead comms system. She then turned to Nora and the rest of the bullhead crew and said, "My mother is bringing more drones with her and has agreed that we can afford to risk the ones which we currently have left to investigate whatever those Lancers are hovering over and refusing to budge from."

When they refueled at the airport, Nicholas Arc reported back to Amber what the drones had spotted before they were destroyed. Besides a Queen Lancer there were three Beringel, a small herd of Goliaths, a Nuckelvee, an Alpha Centinel, an Alpha Death Stalker and a Razorwing. Nora was pleased to find that her instinctive reaction was to want to tackle the Nuckelvee.

Amber Arc's reaction was a loud curse. She sent a message to Professor Pink, "Have you any ideas on how we can tackle these things in tandem? I have never had to tackle them simultaneously?"

Professor Pink replied, "I have never had to tackle that combination either. I will see if Professor Port has any suggestions. I will recommend that your mother call him in to help mount the defence."

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Velvet was interested to see how the Faunus in the village were dealing with the threatened Grimm invasion. Instead of fleeing, they were taking to the cellars of their houses. While most of the houses in the village were wooden, the cellars tended to be concrete and even the trap doors were metallic rather than wooden.

The mayor had explained this on the basis that most Grimm were not diggers and that once they had charged through and destroyed a house tended to assume that the inhabitants had fled. They had a theory that the concrete shielded the villagers' life signs although those who aura was unlocked had did not hide underground. Apparently, in the past the auras attracted attention and had resulted in heavier Grimm breaking through the floors.

A message had been sent to the LGDF headquarters in Ansel. Port explained that this was a precaution so that in the event the hunters defending the village died, someone would come round to give an agreed knock on the trap door that it was safe to emerge.

Both Velvet and Coco were uneasy about being separated from Fox and Yatsuhashi. They had come to rely on communicating using Fox's semblance and Yatsuhashi was good at dealing with Grimm which got through Coco's barrage of bullets. Even though they understood why Fox was needed in Kulsa and Yatsuhashi would be a stalwart defender at the damaged gate, they would miss having the other two around. Velvet had given pairs of the Bunnyvision version of Coco's shades to Yatsuhashi, Ruby and Taiyang for use at Kulsa.

While understanding that Coco had the best of motives in wanting to save up the revelation of Anesidora for the Vytal Festival, she did feel that this was a situation where the weapon should be used. However, Port had given her another reason why she should keep the weapon a secret tonight and she reluctantly accepted that it had some weight.

Still, she did have her sniper rifle with its enhanced sights. She had observed the best snipers at Beacon to improve her own technique and had also made her own bullets. She would therefore be playing an active role in the defence of the village and not being a deadweight

The Grimm had stopped a mile or so away and were waiting for nightfall. It made sense for them to reduce the scope for being picked off by guns and arrows during the charge before their claws, stingers, beaks, and talons could come into play. Port explained that a reason for the road changing direction and for the hunters waiting for the Grimm outside the town was to increase the chance that if the Grimm did break through the line of defence they would not necessarily destroy the village. This was because if they carried on in a straight line, they would miss the main buildings in the village.

Just before night fell a scroll message came into Professor Port. He listened and said, "Fine, but things are difficult here as well. If you could spare someone to replace me that would be appreciated."

He turned to the rest of them said, "They are sending a bullhead for me. They have some spectacularly large prey waiting outside Kulsa and the LGDF says it needs my specialist knowledge."

He took down his weapon and said, "Let's winnow them out here before I have to go. Miss Scarlatina take aim at the largest Alpha Ursa you can spot and fire, Miss Adel, be ready to shoot down the Nevermore when they move."

Velvet aimed her rifle and used her semblance to copy the technique of Brede Campion. The shot rang out and clearly hit the Alpha Ursa she had been aiming at. It stumbled and she followed up with two further shots which cause it to charge at the thin line of hunters bringing others with it. She told the others that the charge had started. Professor Port asked her to let him know when the front line of Grimm was two hundred yards away.

This was perfect ground for both Professor Port and Coco's weapons and they disposed of most of the first wave of Grimm while the team of hunters picked off those which got through the fire balls and dust enhanced bullets. Next the lurking Nevermore moved in to try and take out the irritating group of seven hunters, but Coco used the extra special bullets to slice through them.

So far so good. The leader of the team of hunters, Darren Marine, congratulated her on her aim and she confirmed to them that she would let him know when the second wave of Grimm advanced.

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In Mistral City Hazel had arrived back from the visit to Raven Branwen and was taking over Lionheart sitting duties from Watts. Arthur would be returning to Salem's palace in the next few days to go through the details of the proposed next step of the propaganda campaign.

Their leader had become a little more hands on ever since Cinder had nearly succeeded in taking the powers of the Fall Maiden. She had expressed the view that most of them had been a little self-indulgent in their original draft of the W the Unknown manifesto and that they should not underestimate the intelligence of their opponents. She had excepted him from the criticism as blaming Ozpin was something she thought was entirely appropriate, but he had wondered if she had suddenly thought that there was a chance of winning.

He had gathered from Tyrian (who was the only non-Grimm follower who had served Salem longer than him) that she had become a little discouraged thirteen years back when a silver eyed huntress had taken out the previous version of Watts and Cinder before succumbing to Tyrian's semblance and Salem's raw power. Tyrian had, of course, not said that directly, but it was implicit in how he referred to the level of engagement she was showing in their activities.

Hazel did occasionally worry that he had been too blasé in assuming that his medium term and her short-term aims were sufficiently similar to mean that he did not need to speculate on her long term aims. He had recruited Watts, Cinder and Lionheart who all had their own reasons for collapsing the current system of government in their home kingdoms and were comparatively unbothered by collateral damage in the rest of Remnant.

He had come back to find a triumphant Watts who had spent a few hours in the Haven Academy scroll message system. The man explained what was happening in Kulsa and the fact that a student at Haven was responsible for exacerbating the situation.

While Watts could be an arrogant pain in the neck, he was aware of some of his limitations and wanted Hazel's opinion on the next steps he should take and how they should present the options to Salem.

"Rainart, when I got our cowardly friend's go ahead to investigate the system, I thought that I would have to invent and forge the messages to allow him to blame others at Haven. I had underestimated the arrogance of our friend's opponents."

He showed Hazel some scroll messages from a senior master at Haven to Magenta Raddock and to members of the central government in Mistral and the local government in Kulsa over the last three days.

"Even better, the man has just tried to delete these messages, but does not understand what he needs to do to totally destroy the evidence."

Hazel looked at the messages and saw that they would allow Lionheart to strike at his enemies in the Academy.

"Let's speak to our queen first. In the meantime, think about how much Lionheart needs to understand about technology to bluff his way towards convincingly saying that it was the attempt to delete the messages which brought them to his attention rather than him deliberately spying."

He sighed and said, "We probably also need to ensure that Lionheart has enough loyalists around to mean that he will win a fight with a senior professor who he arrests for treason without you or I being obviously involved."

OK, next chapter will be all out-fight chapter. Sorry for the delay but I got a little distracted last week by politics in the UK. Also, when writing this chapter, I was struck by a desire to think about how Jaune and Ren cope with being the weakest fighters on their team, the effect on Mercury of dealing with comparatively normal people after living with a sadistic sociopath or most of his life, Nora having a potential role model (and indeed how and why she changed from the bullied beggar girl to the character we first meet) and Velvet reacting to being told to hide her talent. I wish I had the ability to explore these themes better, but they do interest me.

Having changed Jaune's backstory to be in my eyes a little more credible, it is hard to avoid the risk that his reactions are all OOC. Still, I think that having him be a mixture of the Volume 6 episode 1 person who does the right thing to protect the passengers even if is not the most heroic option and the early volume Jaune who is disappointed when Pyrrha in effect takes over the leadership of the Team in Breach and finds it hard to accept help from her is an interesting angle to investigate.

Bunnyvision is taken from the EC Myers books. I should also add that there are times when I am not certain whether I am taking things from the show or from Coeur al'Aran when I treat them as canon.

Again, I would be grateful for feedback. This is almost certainly by second most popular story, but I am writing in a bit of a vacuum. I would like to know what works or does not work for readers.