diff --git a/training/amygdala_training/train_steering_vectors.py b/training/amygdala_training/train_steering_vectors.py
index a722298..21e5ed1 100644
--- a/training/amygdala_training/train_steering_vectors.py
+++ b/training/amygdala_training/train_steering_vectors.py
@@ -1,30 +1,48 @@
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0
 # SPDX-FileCopyrightText: Copyright contributors to the vLLM project
-"""Train amygdala steering vectors via Contrastive Activation Addition.
+"""Train concept-readout vectors via Contrastive Activation Addition.
 
-Reads the per-emotion JSONL files produced by extract_training_pairs.py,
-runs the target model over each example, captures the residual-stream
-hidden state at the configured target layers, and computes
-`mean(positive) - mean(negative)` as the steering direction per layer
-per emotion.
+Reads the hand-written story corpus at
+``amygdala_stories/{stories,paired}/`` and produces the per-layer
+safetensors file + sidecar JSON manifest that vLLM's ReadoutManager
+loads at startup (``VLLM_READOUT_VECTORS`` / ``VLLM_READOUT_MANIFEST``).
 
-Output: a safetensors file matching the format AmygdalaConnector
-expects:
+Training data (cross-concept contrast):
 
-    vectors:       [n_emotions, n_target_layers, hidden_dim]  fp16
-    emotion_names: [n_emotions]                               uint8
+    positive for emotion E:
+        stories/E.txt
+        paired/<scenario>/E.txt   (for each scenario that covers E)
 
-Pooling: last-token residual-stream per example (CAA convention —
-the final token has seen the whole context and is where the model's
-"decision" lives). Alternative: mean across all tokens. The LAST
-convention is more common for steering vector work.
+    negative for emotion E:
+        stories/<all other emotions>.txt
+        paired/<scenario>/baseline.txt  (for each scenario)
+
+Within-scenario paired stories are the highest-signal pairs (same
+content, different concept framing); unpaired stories provide bulk
+contrast across the 80 emotions we have written so far.
+
+Pooling: last non-pad token. Matches how readout is consumed at decode
+time (residual read at the sampler's query position).
+
+Output:
+
+    readout.safetensors
+        layer_<idx>.vectors : fp16 (n_concepts, hidden_size)   one per layer
+    readout.json
+        {
+          "concepts":    [...],
+          "layers":      [...],
+          "hidden_size": int,
+          "dtype":       "float16"
+        }
 """
 
+from __future__ import annotations
+
 import argparse
 import gc
 import json
 import os
-from collections import defaultdict
 from pathlib import Path
 
 import safetensors.torch
@@ -39,81 +57,11 @@ def _pool_last(hidden: torch.Tensor, attention_mask: torch.Tensor) -> torch.Tens
     attention_mask: [batch, seq]
     returns: [batch, hidden_dim]
     """
-    # last non-pad token index per row
     last_idx = attention_mask.sum(dim=1) - 1
     batch_idx = torch.arange(hidden.size(0), device=hidden.device)
     return hidden[batch_idx, last_idx]
 
 
-def _collect_activations(
-    model,
-    tokenizer,
-    texts: list[str],
-    target_layers: list[int],
-    device: torch.device,
-    batch_size: int,
-    max_length: int,
-) -> torch.Tensor:
-    """Run texts through the model, capture residual stream at target
-    layers, return [n_texts, n_target_layers, hidden_dim] fp32 on CPU.
-    """
-    # Register hooks on the target layers' outputs. We want the
-    # residual stream AFTER each layer, which is the output of the
-    # transformer block (hidden_states[layer_idx+1] in HF land).
-    captures: dict[int, torch.Tensor] = {}
-
-    def make_hook(idx):
-        def hook(_mod, _inp, output):
-            # output is typically (hidden_states, ...) — take the first
-            hs = output[0] if isinstance(output, tuple) else output
-            captures[idx] = hs.detach()
-        return hook
-
-    handles = []
-    # Transformers' LlamaModel.layers is a ModuleList; Qwen3.5's
-    # language_model.model.layers follows the same convention.
-    # Resolve the layer list by walking common paths.
-    layers_module = _find_layers_module(model)
-    for idx in target_layers:
-        handles.append(
-            layers_module[idx].register_forward_hook(make_hook(idx))
-        )
-
-    out_rows: list[torch.Tensor] = []
-    try:
-        model.eval()
-        with torch.no_grad():
-            for i in range(0, len(texts), batch_size):
-                batch = texts[i : i + batch_size]
-                tok = tokenizer(
-                    batch,
-                    return_tensors="pt",
-                    padding=True,
-                    truncation=True,
-                    max_length=max_length,
-                ).to(device)
-                captures.clear()
-                model(**tok)
-
-                per_layer = []
-                for idx in target_layers:
-                    hs = captures[idx]  # [batch, seq, hidden]
-                    pooled = _pool_last(hs, tok["attention_mask"])
-                    per_layer.append(pooled.to(torch.float32).cpu())
-                # Stack to [batch, n_layers, hidden_dim]
-                batched = torch.stack(per_layer, dim=1)
-                out_rows.append(batched)
-
-                del tok, captures
-                if (i // batch_size) % 10 == 0:
-                    torch.cuda.empty_cache()
-    finally:
-        for h in handles:
-            h.remove()
-
-    return torch.cat(out_rows, dim=0)  # [n_texts, n_layers, hidden]
-
-
 def _find_layers_module(model) -> torch.nn.ModuleList:
     """Walk a few likely paths to find the transformer-block list."""
     candidates = [
@@ -139,25 +87,143 @@ def _find_layers_module(model) -> torch.nn.ModuleList:
     )
 
 
+def _collect_activations(
+    model,
+    tokenizer,
+    texts: list[str],
+    target_layers: list[int],
+    device: torch.device,
+    batch_size: int,
+    max_length: int,
+) -> torch.Tensor:
+    """Run texts through the model, capture residual stream at target
+    layers, return ``[n_texts, n_target_layers, hidden_dim]`` fp32 on CPU.
+    """
+    captures: dict[int, torch.Tensor] = {}
+
+    def make_hook(idx: int):
+        def hook(_mod, _inp, output):
+            hs = output[0] if isinstance(output, tuple) else output
+            captures[idx] = hs.detach()
+        return hook
+
+    layers_module = _find_layers_module(model)
+    handles = [
+        layers_module[idx].register_forward_hook(make_hook(idx))
+        for idx in target_layers
+    ]
+
+    out_rows: list[torch.Tensor] = []
+    try:
+        model.eval()
+        with torch.no_grad():
+            for i in range(0, len(texts), batch_size):
+                batch = texts[i : i + batch_size]
+                tok = tokenizer(
+                    batch,
+                    return_tensors="pt",
+                    padding=True,
+                    truncation=True,
+                    max_length=max_length,
+                ).to(device)
+                captures.clear()
+                model(**tok)
+
+                per_layer = [
+                    _pool_last(captures[idx], tok["attention_mask"])
+                    .to(torch.float32)
+                    .cpu()
+                    for idx in target_layers
+                ]
+                out_rows.append(torch.stack(per_layer, dim=1))
+                del tok, captures
+                if (i // batch_size) % 10 == 0:
+                    torch.cuda.empty_cache()
+                captures = {}
+    finally:
+        for h in handles:
+            h.remove()
+
+    return torch.cat(out_rows, dim=0)
+
+
+def _load_corpus(stories_dir: Path, paired_dir: Path | None) -> tuple[
+    dict[str, list[str]],  # emotion -> positive texts (unpaired + within-scenario framings)
+    list[str],             # all baseline texts (one per scenario), as scenario-agnostic negatives
+]:
+    """Return ``(positives_by_emotion, baselines)``.
+
+    Cross-concept negatives are computed at training time from
+    ``positives_by_emotion`` — each emotion's negative set is the
+    union of all other emotions' positives plus the baseline texts.
+    """
+    positives: dict[str, list[str]] = {}
+    for story_path in sorted(stories_dir.glob("*.txt")):
+        emotion = story_path.stem
+        positives.setdefault(emotion, []).append(
+            story_path.read_text().strip()
+        )
+
+    baselines: list[str] = []
+    if paired_dir is not None and paired_dir.exists():
+        for scenario_dir in sorted(paired_dir.iterdir()):
+            if not scenario_dir.is_dir():
+                continue
+            baseline_path = scenario_dir / "baseline.txt"
+            if baseline_path.exists():
+                baselines.append(baseline_path.read_text().strip())
+            for framing_path in sorted(scenario_dir.glob("*.txt")):
+                if framing_path.stem == "baseline":
+                    continue
+                emotion = framing_path.stem
+                positives.setdefault(emotion, []).append(
+                    framing_path.read_text().strip()
+                )
+
+    return positives, baselines
+
+
 def main() -> None:
     ap = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=__doc__)
     ap.add_argument("--model", required=True, help="HF model id or path")
-    ap.add_argument("--training-data-dir", required=True)
     ap.add_argument(
-        "--target-layers", required=True,
-        help="Comma-separated layer indices, e.g. 3,18,33,36",
+        "--stories-dir",
+        required=True,
+        help="Path to amygdala_stories/stories/",
+    )
+    ap.add_argument(
+        "--paired-dir",
+        default=None,
+        help="Path to amygdala_stories/paired/ (optional)",
+    )
+    ap.add_argument(
+        "--target-layers",
+        required=True,
+        help="Comma-separated layer indices, e.g. 40,50,60,70",
+    )
+    ap.add_argument(
+        "--output-dir",
+        required=True,
+        help="Directory to write readout.safetensors + readout.json",
     )
-    ap.add_argument("--output", required=True)
     ap.add_argument("--dtype", default="bf16", choices=["bf16", "fp16", "fp32"])
-    ap.add_argument("--batch-size", type=int, default=4)
+    ap.add_argument("--batch-size", type=int, default=2)
     ap.add_argument("--max-length", type=int, default=512)
     ap.add_argument("--device", default="cuda:0")
+    ap.add_argument(
+        "--min-positives",
+        type=int,
+        default=1,
+        help="Skip emotions with fewer positive examples than this",
+    )
     args = ap.parse_args()
 
     target_layers = [int(x) for x in args.target_layers.split(",")]
-    dtype = {"bf16": torch.bfloat16, "fp16": torch.float16, "fp32": torch.float32}[
-        args.dtype
-    ]
+    dtype = {
+        "bf16": torch.bfloat16,
+        "fp16": torch.float16,
+        "fp32": torch.float32,
+    }[args.dtype]
 
     print(f"Loading {args.model} ({args.dtype}) on {args.device}...")
     tokenizer = AutoTokenizer.from_pretrained(args.model)
@@ -170,78 +236,137 @@ def main() -> None:
         low_cpu_mem_usage=True,
     )
     hidden_dim = model.config.hidden_size
-    print(f"Model loaded. hidden_dim={hidden_dim}, "
-          f"n_layers={model.config.num_hidden_layers}")
-
-    manifest_path = Path(args.training_data_dir) / "_manifest.json"
-    manifest = json.loads(manifest_path.read_text())
-
-    emotions = sorted(manifest["emotions"].keys())
-    print(f"Training {len(emotions)} emotions: {emotions}")
-
-    n_emotions = len(emotions)
-    n_layers = len(target_layers)
-    vectors = torch.zeros(
-        (n_emotions, n_layers, hidden_dim), dtype=torch.float32
+    n_model_layers = model.config.num_hidden_layers
+    print(
+        f"Model loaded. hidden_dim={hidden_dim}, "
+        f"n_model_layers={n_model_layers}"
     )
+
+    for layer_idx in target_layers:
+        if layer_idx < 0 or layer_idx >= n_model_layers:
+            raise ValueError(
+                f"target layer {layer_idx} out of range "
+                f"[0, {n_model_layers})"
+            )
+
+    positives_by_emotion, baselines = _load_corpus(
+        Path(args.stories_dir),
+        Path(args.paired_dir) if args.paired_dir else None,
+    )
+    emotions = sorted(
+        e for e, ps in positives_by_emotion.items()
+        if len(ps) >= args.min_positives
+    )
+    if not emotions:
+        raise RuntimeError(
+            f"No emotions with >= {args.min_positives} positive examples"
+        )
+    print(
+        f"Training {len(emotions)} emotions; "
+        f"{len(baselines)} baseline scenarios"
+    )
+
+    # Cache all positive-text activations once so we can reuse them as
+    # negatives for other emotions. Keyed by the text itself to dedup
+    # across emotion lists.
     device = torch.device(args.device)
+    text_to_emotion: dict[str, str] = {}
+    for emotion, texts in positives_by_emotion.items():
+        for t in texts:
+            text_to_emotion[t] = emotion
+
+    unique_positive_texts = list(text_to_emotion.keys())
+    print(
+        f"Collecting activations for {len(unique_positive_texts)} unique "
+        f"positive texts + {len(baselines)} baselines..."
+    )
+
+    positive_acts = _collect_activations(
+        model, tokenizer, unique_positive_texts, target_layers, device,
+        args.batch_size, args.max_length,
+    )
+    # positive_acts[i] corresponds to unique_positive_texts[i]
+    text_to_row = {t: i for i, t in enumerate(unique_positive_texts)}
+
+    baseline_acts = (
+        _collect_activations(
+            model, tokenizer, baselines, target_layers, device,
+            args.batch_size, args.max_length,
+        )
+        if baselines
+        else torch.zeros(0, len(target_layers), hidden_dim)
+    )
+
+    n_concepts = len(emotions)
+    n_layers = len(target_layers)
+
+    # Per-layer output matrices. Shape (n_concepts, hidden_size) each.
+    per_layer_vectors = torch.zeros(
+        (n_layers, n_concepts, hidden_dim), dtype=torch.float32
+    )
 
     for e_idx, emotion in enumerate(emotions):
-        path = Path(args.training_data_dir) / f"{emotion}.jsonl"
-        pos_texts, neg_texts = [], []
-        with open(path) as f:
-            for line in f:
-                ex = json.loads(line)
-                if ex["polarity"] == "positive":
-                    pos_texts.append(ex["text"])
-                else:
-                    neg_texts.append(ex["text"])
-        print(f"[{e_idx+1}/{n_emotions}] {emotion}: "
-              f"{len(pos_texts)} pos / {len(neg_texts)} neg")
+        pos_rows = [text_to_row[t] for t in positives_by_emotion[emotion]]
+        # Negatives: every OTHER emotion's positives + baselines.
+        neg_rows = [
+            i
+            for i, t in enumerate(unique_positive_texts)
+            if text_to_emotion[t] != emotion
+        ]
 
-        pos_acts = _collect_activations(
-            model, tokenizer, pos_texts, target_layers, device,
-            args.batch_size, args.max_length,
-        )
-        neg_acts = _collect_activations(
-            model, tokenizer, neg_texts, target_layers, device,
-            args.batch_size, args.max_length,
-        )
+        pos = positive_acts[pos_rows]         # [n_pos, n_layers, hidden]
+        neg = positive_acts[neg_rows]         # [n_neg, n_layers, hidden]
+        if baseline_acts.shape[0] > 0:
+            neg = torch.cat([neg, baseline_acts], dim=0)
 
-        # Difference of means per layer
-        pos_mean = pos_acts.mean(dim=0)  # [n_layers, hidden]
-        neg_mean = neg_acts.mean(dim=0)
+        pos_mean = pos.mean(dim=0)            # [n_layers, hidden]
+        neg_mean = neg.mean(dim=0)
         diff = pos_mean - neg_mean
-
-        # Normalize per layer so projections are scale-comparable
         norms = diff.norm(dim=-1, keepdim=True).clamp_min(1e-6)
         diff = diff / norms
 
-        vectors[e_idx] = diff
-        del pos_acts, neg_acts
-        gc.collect()
-        torch.cuda.empty_cache()
+        # diff[layer] -> per_layer_vectors[layer, e_idx]
+        for l_idx in range(n_layers):
+            per_layer_vectors[l_idx, e_idx] = diff[l_idx]
 
-    # Save in AmygdalaConnector format.
-    # emotion_names as padded uint8 tensor
-    names_bytes = [e.encode("utf-8") for e in emotions]
-    max_len = max(len(b) for b in names_bytes)
-    padded = torch.tensor(
-        [list(b.ljust(max_len, b"\x00")) for b in names_bytes],
-        dtype=torch.uint8,
-    )
+        if e_idx < 5 or e_idx == len(emotions) - 1:
+            print(
+                f"  [{e_idx + 1}/{len(emotions)}] {emotion}: "
+                f"pos={len(pos_rows)} neg={len(neg_rows) + baseline_acts.shape[0]}"
+            )
 
-    os.makedirs(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(args.output)), exist_ok=True)
+    output_dir = Path(args.output_dir)
+    output_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    tensors = {
+        f"layer_{target_layers[l_idx]}.vectors": (
+            per_layer_vectors[l_idx].to(torch.float16)
+        )
+        for l_idx in range(n_layers)
+    }
     safetensors.torch.save_file(
-        {
-            "vectors": vectors.to(torch.float16),
-            "emotion_names": padded,
-            "target_layers": torch.tensor(target_layers, dtype=torch.int32),
-        },
-        args.output,
+        tensors,
+        str(output_dir / "readout.safetensors"),
     )
-    print(f"\nWrote steering vectors to {args.output}: "
-          f"{n_emotions} emotions x {n_layers} layers x {hidden_dim} dim (fp16)")
+    manifest = {
+        "concepts": emotions,
+        "layers": target_layers,
+        "hidden_size": hidden_dim,
+        "dtype": "float16",
+    }
+    (output_dir / "readout.json").write_text(
+        json.dumps(manifest, indent=2) + "\n"
+    )
+
+    total_mb = sum(t.numel() * 2 for t in tensors.values()) / (1024 * 1024)
+    print(
+        f"\nWrote readout.safetensors + readout.json to {output_dir}\n"
+        f"  {n_concepts} concepts x {n_layers} layers x "
+        f"{hidden_dim} dim (fp16), total {total_mb:.1f} MiB"
+    )
+    del model
+    gc.collect()
+    torch.cuda.empty_cache()
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":