A kiss is just a kiss?
Not really the time to be essaying, but it wouldn't let me sleep until I put it up, out, and in the open. So, here we go an stuff.
I screwed up the Truth or Dare playing, in case anyone was playing attention. And this is my way of saying "Don't care if it's AU, I fugged up big time and I'm sorry." In specific, the charge is Ranma, running around like a maniac under very little influence and kissing people. Which...he'd never do. Unless there was a severe challenge. And even then, he'd seek the alternatives.
Let's dive into that logic for a minute. The Romeo & Juliet fiasco, as well as the Neko-Ken debacle.
First, we have this play where three different weirdos are doing their damndest to feel up Akane Tendo. And she almost doesn't care, because she gets to play out her dream role of the star heroine, Juliet. And Ranma almost doesn't care at all--Kuno's annoying, but whatever, it's what she wants, right?
Of course, that would make for a boring chapter, so there's a hook--the play is part of a district-wide contest. Best highschool drama club that wins gets a chance to see China. It is, of course, a wordplay; "China" is this infamous actor/producer/whatever with a high travel background. But Ranma doesn't know this when he signs on. And of course, he fumbles through the play like a trooper, figthing off the perverts and arguing with Akane. And then comes this big kissing scene, and he truly gets cold feet for the first time in the series.
He refuses to kiss her. At threat of everything that Soun and Genma could throw at him, Kuno, Happousai, and even Kasumi's own encouragement of the play to be the most successful it can be, he refuses to kiss her. In his own screwed up logic. When pressed to provide a reason why, his response is, "Do you think it'd be this hard if I didn't care?!"
And there, we get a good, everyone gets a good look at Ranma's inner thoughts. But it almost doesn't matter because Akane immediately tops him afterward, as usual (>See Icon), and the thought doesn't get followed on. Which is the norm for Ranma 1/2.
Still, it's there in black and white: lip-locking is an important and vital thing in Ranmaverse, as a lot of kissing is threatened, but always evaded or scared out of, or completely overlooked as unimportant.
The Neko Ken incident shows that even better--Ranma's tearing up anything that moves, but one look at Akane and he's all purring and nuzzles. And then he up and kitty-kisses her, yawns, and passes out. She's embarrassed and kicks him in the pool, afterward, but, again, statement is crystal clear: "I like you, so it's okay."
But that wasn't his waking mind. His waking mind, persay, was more present at the play, where he froze up like a wuss about the possibility of kissing a girl he liked.
All that said, you think I'd be a little more lenient in the case, but it's camp. I was far too enabled, and forgot to give myself a decent out until it was too late to deal in the typical Ranmaesque manner (which I thankfully pulled off with Kodachi before my computer decided it was tired of working at a decent pacing). I'm sure everyone had a lot of fun, regardless, but it's still a booboo on my part, and I intend to keep a closer eye on those kind of situations in the future ps Kodachi-mun I totally need to email you hahaha failiiiiiiiiing.
My personal views on Ranma + smoochies, as far as CFUD, have to stray a little apart from canon, due to necessity of playing. Simply put, other characters may not treat such small things as a big deal (much like, for example, a curse of the Sohma variety would not get more than an eyeblink from any of the Ranma cast), so you have to seek a middle ground of some sort and to be honest Kazumi I was comfy in making Ranma kiss just because she's an Akamatsu character. Small of me, I know. If there's an influence (mistletoe, smooching robots, virus, etc), I will forever throw the boy into those situations. Because those are commonplace in Ranmaverse. It's the semi-sensitive scenarios, such as Truth or Dare, which I should watch for much more carefully.
In sum, he won't be as loose-lipped in the future, and I probably was far less coherent than I intended to be.