Insidious, Liminal, Sequestered
Insidious- proceeding gradually, but with harmful effects that become noticeable over time
Ex: Watch out for the seemingly benign, yet insidious, effects of huffing Sharpies. At first, you’re just in it for the quick high to get you through the rigor of 5th grade social studies, but before you know it you and your degenerate homies will be forming a World War Z zombie ladder and clambering over one another to break into the Sharpie factory in Atlanta just to get one more whiff of that sweet, sweet ink.
Liminal- barely able to be perceived
Ex: While to white parents the difference between an A and an A+ may be liminal, this distinction is wholly apparent to immigrant parents. “You no get the plus? Stay on the bus! No come home! We no raise no idiot caveman in this house! Go hang out with Johnny and Michael at the baseball fields since you want to be white boy so bad!”
Sequestered- isolated from others, hidden
Ex: The boy sequestered himself at his rural family farm for a few weeks after the shitting-the-pants incident during the 7th grade performance of Our Town.