Swiss Cheese Theory

by varnes

The Swiss Cheese model of accident causation likens human system defences to a series of slices of randomly-holed Swiss Cheese arranged vertically and parallel to each other with gaps in-between each slice. Defences against failure are modelled as a series of barriers, represented as slices of the cheese. The holes in the cheese slices represent individual weaknesses in individual parts of the system. The system as a whole produces failures when holes in all of the slices momentarily align, permitting "a trajectory of accident opportunity," so that a hazard passes through holes in all of the defences, leading to an accident.

OR: Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian go to the courthouse.

OR: “Sweethearts,” the city clerk had said, very gently, “you’re already married.”

64 pages, Unknown Binding

Reviews

[r ꨄ︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

second read

varnes has made me feel more in 105,000 words than entire years of my life have


first read

"It was probably ... really nice, being loved like that, by someone like Lan Wangji, who seemed like the type of person who loved you, even if you went somewhere without him. Even if it took you a while to come back. The type of person who stayed."

my honest reaction

[wasteland baby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hmm. On a reread this does not hold up *quite* as well as live from new york. I think there's too much wwx POV? I mean don't get me wrong, he's a hillarious gremlin of the highest order.

"And who invited Jin Dicksuan, anyway? It was probably Lan Zhan, who had some soft spot for him because apparently they had, like, been in the trenches of simultaneous emotional crises at some point in time Lan Zhan refuses to discuss—Wei Wuxian suspects it’s a Grew Up A Hollywood Rich Kid thing, because literally what else could Lan Zhan (erotic, honorific) have in common with Jin Zixuan (milquetoast, derogatory)? — and Lan Zhan was a soft baby bunny who thought he “deserved” an “invitation” because he was “your sister’s husband-to-be.”

So what!!! That’s not Wei Wuxian’s fault!!!!

At his shoulder, Lan Zhan gently murmurs, “Wei Ying. Focus.”

Right, Wei Wuxian thinks as he laces his fingers with Lan Zhan’s. Yes. The crisis is not that Jin Zixuan is here, or that the man gets to marry Yanli even though his favorite song is “Hey Hey We’re The Monkees” by The Monkees. The crisis is —

The crisis is —

“Oh my God,” Yanli manages to say to the floor while dry heaving. “I’m going to go into labor. I swear to God this is going to send me right to the hospital.”

“Don’t joke about that!” Jiang Cheng snaps, then remembers that he’s talking to a very hormonal Yanli, who had turned, for a handful of harrowing weeks, into some kind of Stephen King eldritch horror which fed on the tears and misery of those around her, and immediately softens his tone with, “Please. A-jie. Uh, ma’am.”"

Notice the number of exclamation points, notice the memespeak, notice the sheer chaos. It's funny, but there's also...so much going on?? at all times?? I think I prefer spending time with Lan Immense Restrain and Pining Wangji, tbh.

I thought about docking a star, but honestly this fic gave me so much?? If it's fanservice, then so be it, bcs I not only got LWJ and WWX going to the courthouse only to find out they have unknowingly aready been married for 3.5 years?? And then getting the backstory of how that happened through various characters' flashbacks (since this is a fic about SNL dumbasses, it's naturally a sketch where they went too far on the realism lmao)?? But we also got Lan Xichen's iconic "LWJ made me cut off the crusts on his sandwiches till he was 14", which is just...wow. What a mental image. Thank you varnes my queen.


Original review from February 2022:
I am eternally grateful to have read the sentence "Love is stored in the Lan Zhan." with my own two eyeballs. Somebody give varnes their flowers already.

[Notnotnerdygirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

yeah a pretty great mystery sweetness sequel