1 – I wonder if it would help to add dates to the chapters?  The war in which Lexa is a commanding officer takes place about 12 year before the ‘present’ where she meets Clarke, so she’s an officer in the military, but not in the police.  just as Lincoln will join the police later, Lexa becomes a private detective after the war (I’d hoped this was implied with Lincoln’s change of rank and Lexa’s lack of one).  

[2/6] also, i just want to clarify the different factions in conflict/who express interest in the flame. becca the scientist (with help from clarke’s dad jake?) develops an intelligence enhancing chip (the flame), with lexa as the test subject (who may or may not be becca’s /biological? adoptive?/ daughter) and alie as a sentient a.i., correct? dante wallace (head of mt weather corp industrial?) and nia frost are intent on finding the flame for their own villainous plans, correct?

2 – All correct.  In this story, Lexa is Becca’s biological daughter.  Alie’s ‘sentience’ is a complex matter.  She is a prototype to the ‘flame’ but she is nothing like it.  Wallace was helping to finance Becca’s work.  Someone made a deal with the devil.  

[3/6] raven was investigating the dealings of mt weather, but what did she discover that was so shady that she “disappeared” because of it? (if this is too spoilery, could you at least give a bit of detail as to how deep her investigation went)

3 – Mt. Weather Industrial is the shadiest of shady operations: there are levels that appear benign and legal, and then there are aspects that most certainly are not.  Nia is involved in the shadiest parts, Dante is her ‘benign’ front. We’ll get to Raven’s investigation in future chapters. Let’s just say the war never really ended.

[5/6] now to the bar: why is abby catatonic? was she traumatized by what happened in the clockwork war (i’m guessing that’s when jake died?) finn (working for emerson?) is digging dirt on clarke and what she knows about raven’s investigation, correct?

4 – Abby’s been out of it for a while now, and we’ll learn more, but she’s mostly ‘gone’ due to being an alcoholic who lives off of absinthe.  Her problems started before the war.  Abby (and Clarke) were largely unaware of Jake’s other life.  As Nia is looking for the Flame, and as Raven was Clarke’s closest friend, Finn is sent to find out if she knows where it is.  And yes, he does work for Emerson within ‘security’ for the corporation.  Note here, not everyone knows they are connected with anything to do with the Flame. 

[6/6] so yeah…i apologize for the question dump. :p i feel like the story has changed in tone and pacing from the first chapter (i mean, it’s not first person pov of lexa anymore…), it got me confused. anyway,i’m intrigued by the plot and world-building (helped in large part by the steampunk aesthetics you post, thanks for that!), so i’m really invested in the story. i know future chapters would eventually shed light on these concerns and i can’t wait to see how you tie it all together 😀

No apologies necessary. I know this story is wonky, but I did feel the tone/POV shift was necessary or else it would just become kind of static or more of a parody.  Of course, it’s more likely that I simply don’t know what I’m doing. 😉 

Thank you for those interesting questions, I hope I was able to clarify things for you.  🙂