Sam's slightly raised eyebrow was the only sign of his faint skepticism over whether he was truly excluded from that group - though, while one might argue 'idiot' depending on where one was coming from, 'insulated' certainly didn't fit him. "To be fair," he replied, in tones of faint humour, "it seems a lot closer to Huxley's."

And even as he chatted, all youthful philosophy without true direction, he mulled over how to divert the discussion's track, turn it towards the insanities of the night previous.

After all, knowledge is power.