Jaune tricks some Schnee workers

I slipped inside and headed towards the changing rooms, drawing a bag out of my Inventory and switching my hat for a company version. There were two others inside, older men who paused in putting on their uniforms to look at me oddly. I just nodded back confidently, though.

"Cornelius, Lionel," I nodded, dropping the bag on a bench and unzipping it to withdraw my own uniform, a spare stolen several days. I paid no attention to the men as I stripped off my shirt and pants and got dressed. I saw them go back to changing as well and stretched slightly.

The thing about companies—groups, really—is that they tend to be big. A lot of the time in movies or shows, a guard will see a character, disguised or not, and instantly know he doesn't belong. But I'd be shocked if there was anyone in any company who could remember everyone employed by it off the top of their heads. At school, I have several different classes of twenty to forty students and I bet most of them wouldn't know the names of more than five or ten others if you put them on the spot, tops.

And why would they? Most of them never talk to each other, don't hang out, and have little reason to interact. Nobody remembers everyone in their group because they have no real reason to do so and I couldn't imagine companies being any different. And for a project like this where the Schnee had to draw upon over a hundred people for the loading and preparations alone, memorizing everyone you work with is just unfeasible.

So if someone comes into the changing room confidently, looking completely unworried, and takes out your uniform, who are you to say he doesn't belong there? Especially when he's wearing a Schnee Company hat and uses your name.

That last part's especially important. Names are powerful things. I'm not talking about anything to do with Aura or whatever; I'm just talking about basic social interaction. Have you ever had someone come up to you and use your name when you had no idea who they were? Whether they were classmates or whatever else, that's awkward. It means they know you, that they remembered your name, but you didn't bother doing the same. It's weird to find yourself in that position and its like, hey, you could ask, but that's the same as admitting you forgot them completely.

Most people don't want to do that. They'll just avoid the subject entirely or else subtly try to steer you into mentioning it yourself. Cornelius and Lionel, named such by the signs above their heads, didn't break that trend.