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Is it possible that the committee is no longer meeting? He has gotten nothing out of it. He has more or less been unable to keep track of its progress, so busy has he been with his various extended perceptions -- that which lies beneath rather than that which is on the surface. Thoughts and feelings rather than business. He looks at the people around him, and his thoughts are so energetic, so, well, busy, that the people themselves begin to disappear in front of him. Which is to say he sees their thoughts but he does not see -- or rather, he loses track of, the physical presence that houses those thoughts. Does the committee continue to meet? He has contributed nothing. Are people talking?