- Team Break-Out: I would imagine that Gloriana and Mathurine have been kidnapping magical girls from other dimensions for 2-3 months after Nanase is made the conductor, which should give them plenty of time to settle in to the new world, have their memories wiped, and perhaps make friends with others who were recruited in the same way. Either that, or the VR world is operating on "Hour Outside, Day Inside" rules, so your characters may be experiencing months of subjective time while only a week passes in Ayaka's world since Nanase became the conductor.
- Where and at what point in your character's story did Mathurine find your character? What were they doing? Were they in downtime, or in the middle of an adventure?
- Which version of Mathurine approached your character to invite you in La Val Sans Retour? I would say that characters who meet the Huli!Mathruine animatronic in the real world are more likely to enter the VR world via a portal generated by the Somnia Virtua Lyre that Mathurine plays, and they would enter with their whole bodies, whereas those that enter the VR world via a headset may leave their waking bodies behind and would meet Mathurine in their start-up/character creation area as the intro NPC to the world.
- On that note, if your character logged in via a headset, what happens to the bodies they leave behind when they are recruited into the VR world? Do they end up at a hospital in a coma? Or do their bodies disappear from the real world when they are recruited?
- Who actually recruited your character? Was it Mathurine who delivered the sales pitch, or did Mathurine take your character to Gloriana and Nanase for them to decide?
- How did Mathurine/Gloriana/(Nanase?) persuade your character to join the VR world? What were your characters offered in returned for joining?
- Did your characters join willingly, or were they forced?
- For those characters who have not had a role yet assigned, what role would Gloriana/the VR world assign your characters? @ArlequineLunaire is suggesting that the role represents your character's true self rather than their outward presentation.
- What does your character do in their daily life in their role? If their role is not a routine one, what is their last/most memorable adventure in the role?
- Which of the other crossover characters is your character likely to meet? Are they likely to become friends/rivals/enemies, or just keep them as strangers or passing acquaintances? Would your character only meet members of team BreakOut, or could they meet characters from team BreakIn before Ayaka makes her move?
- Team Break-In: I would say it would take a few days for Ayaka to recruit other magical girls for her cause once she decides to join in the world. Once they make the jump into the VR world, I would imagine it would take them a few days (or a couple of weeks if we go for the "Hour Outside, Day Inside" idea) to get their bearings before Ayaka makes her move at the tournament.
- Where and at what point in your character's story did Ayaka or her message find your character? What were they doing? Were they in downtime, or in the middle of an adventure?
- How was your character approached by Ayaka? Did she send magical fliers, or "messanger pidgeons" constructs that your character came across? Did Ayaka (with Mathurine's help via Somnia Virtua) meet your character in person?
- Or was your character not approached by Ayaka, but figured out that they needed to go into the VR world to achieve their goals? In that event, it is more likely they will be meeting Mathurine, who will either bring them to an antechamber dimension where Ayaka is putting together her team, or drop the characters into the VR world directly and direct them to Ayaka.
- If Ayaka contacted your character, how did Ayaka persuade you to join her cause? Did they volunteer unconditionally, or was it with strings attached?
- When jumping in to the VR world, does your character arrive in the same location as Ayaka and the other recruits, or did they become separated, and if so, where did they end up?
- As above, what role were they assigned by the VR world? And does your character try to fulfill their role to blend in, or do they break character in order to better assist Ayaka?
- If they stick with Ayaka and the others on the team, how do they relate to the other characters on the team? Are they likely to become friends/rivals/enemies, or just stick to doing their jobs without caring too much about the others?
- Would your character only stick with members of team BreakIn, or could they meet characters from team BreakOut before Ayaka makes her move?
- The Tournament: @ArlequineLunaire is proposing that the first chapter starts off with a medieval tournament, probably in celebration of the completion of a "Living World" story mission (or at least that's the official excuse). This gives an occasion for characters on both teams to clash before Ayaka reveals herself. I would imagine, however, that Nanase and Gloriana themselves would not initally be present at the tournament (perhaps Nanase already knows of Ayaka's presence, and is dragging her heels to avoid being out in the public where Ayaka can find her?), so those characters who are close to Nanase will need to adjust accordingly
- Where are your characters during the tournament? Are they joining as participants? Are they just spectating? Are they planning some mischif themselves?
- If not at the tournament, where are they, and what are they doing?
Team Break-Out: Whether or not the VR world is working on sped-up time, I'm inclined to make a meta joke about how slow Something Wicked moves and say that however long Rose and Kyoko are in the VR world, they'll be back before a single night is over. Because that quest has 89K words and we're still not done the first week. As such, I'm gonna say Rose and Kyoko left their physical bodies behind in their rooms but people are unlikely to notice anything up. They were playing the VR game on gaming headsets and appear to have just fallen asleep.
The pair were found about two weeks into the story, so a short ways into the future of Something Wicked. Kyoko has been released from the hospital and is relaxing. Rose has begun testing her newfound fire powers but still knows very little about them. They have both transformed at least once, but they were currently in downtime. They met Mathurine as the NPC in the VR world.
Mathurine delivered the sales pitch. All she had to do was offer them the possibility of a new adventure in a new world like an ominous video game narrator and they both jumped at the chance. It's important to note that they assumed she was an actual NPC talking about a new dungeon and did not grasp the full implications of what she was saying. As a result, she didn't have to offer them anything, although she did nonetheless offer them 'your heart's desire', which manifested as Kyoko's long illness and Daisy's influence on Rose's life being removed.
They joined willingly but without understanding what they were doing.
In her daily life, Rose mostly wanders around, busking and playing music in various establishments. She is plagued by listlessness and wanderlust, so she's constantly on the move, searching for something that makes her want to stay. She drifts in and out of various places and is on friendly terms with most people, but lacks close relationships with anyone. Any other crossover character is likely to at least know of Rose, and she'll probably join up with any Team Break-In members she finds pretty quickly just because it seems interesting.
Kyoko's daily life, meanwhile, is spent deep in the swamp, gathering spell and potion ingredients and stewing in her grudges. She ran away from her magic school but her location is still probably known to the headmistress. Kyoko avoids people at all costs, but will help others out if she thinks she can keep her presence concealed. If her presence is exposed, however, she's likely to play mean pranks or cast nasty nurses before running away. The appearance of being a wicked witch is very important to her. Happy families agitate her greatly. Kyoko certainly already knows Yumemi due to the magic school connection and probably has a one-sided rivalry with Nanase. Please feel free to get other characters with parental issues involved with her, too, it'll be fun. 😈
Team Break-In: Zaiyu detected Rose and Kyoko being taken by Mathurine, so he and Sasori may well have entered the VR world earlier than the rest of Team Break-In. It might be interesting if they did--that would give them more time to establish themselves in the VR world, get invested in their roles (Zaiyu), and start figuring out what's going on (Sasori). Unlike Rose and Kyoko, they physically vanished from the material world to enter the VR world. Doing so would certainly be detected by various forces back in Something Wicked, not least of which is Zaiyu's immediate superior Shayin, so Zaiyu might be sending coded messages back to report on his experiences inside the VR world. If so, his reports should be technically accurate and informative, but also very funny. Feel free to use them to highlight how little Zaiyu actually understands about humans and how distracted he's getting from his actual mission.
Zaiyu and Sasori were also technically in downtime when they left. Or at least Sasori was in downtime, Zaiyu is technically always on the job and doesn't sleep. But he was still in the preliminary research phases of the invasion so he can justify heading off to explore a pocket dimension.
Zaiyu and Sasori did not meet Ayaka and may not even know she's a factor until she makes her grand entrance. That said, Zaiyu is an information specialist, so he should begin putting things together regarding her soon after. He and Sasori materialized near the castle in the VR world, as Zaiyu's role is essentially some kind of seneschal and Sasori is his knight escort/bodyguard. Their roles are meant to have kind of a chivalric romance vibe going on, with the yearning and the silent devotion and the pressing of plausibly deniable kisses to hands while passing on the stairs. Unfortunately, neither of them know what a chivalric romance is, so in practice the skittish Knight still has a tendency to hide behind the bold Damsel. They are still more or less inseparable unless Sasori has been sent out on an errand (or Zaiyu is making him invisible or temporarily imperceptible).
As getting lost in his role is Zaiyu's main arc here, he would not break character to assist Ayaka. He would, however, break character to assist Nanase. Meanwhile, Sasori is much easier to break out of character, but his loyalty is to Zaiyu. As such, he's unlikely to assist Ayaka due to Zaiyu's opposition to her. He could be convinced to help other members of Team Break-In if they phrase the suggestion as if it would help Zaiyu, though.
Zaiyu and Sasori are much more likely to interact with members of Team Break-Out initially, since they got to the VR world early and are passing as NPCs quite well. That said, they're both quite prone to getting distracted by interpersonal drama and spying instead of focusing on their jobs. Sasori especially is kind of at loose ends due to not really understanding what a Knight is (and Zaiyu not really needing a bodyguard).
Tournament: Zaiyu and Sasori will be in the stands with Gloriana and Nanase (and probably Amanda as well). Zaiyu probably helped arrange the tournament and is now proudly watching the fruits of his labours. And making observations on the possible threats and research subjects competing. Sasori was invited to compete but got spooked, so Zaiyu came up with an excuse to let him stay on the sidelines. The sheer amount of people around him is probably still wearing on Sasori's nerves, but he'll stick close to Zaiyu, and thus the others.
