Fantastic story! I wish in part that Akane had gotten to truly meet male Ranma, but the path in the story makes sense and fits well. My heart felt heavier and lighter during this story, thank you so much for sharing it with the world.

Every time I tell myself that queer experiences aren't universal and I shouldn't make too many assumptions, a writer like you comes along and seemingly effortlessly rips out my deepest fears and insecurities, puts words to them, and then takes them into a warm embrace and says "shh, everything's gonna work out okay." Thank you for a story that's probably gonna stick with me for a while.

Also you PERFECTLY encapsulated everything that pissed me off about Genma, and the scene with Ranma and her mom commiserating how awful he was to them both was so painfully, wonderfully cathartic. Just, perfect.

I feel like Ramma’s secret is gonna get revealed in the sequel. I really enjoyed their journey with their identity. Though I felt like the aspects of gender identity are really lightly talked about for a fix that focuses a lot of about and most of the internal monologues and discussion around gender roles and sexuality than anything else. That’s my only real nitpick about this.

I've been sitting on this review for a few months now, what with the holidays, but despite accidentally closing the tab somewhere along the way, I still managed to find my way back here to leave a review because I readily remembered the name of the story.

How? Because this was *amazing* and absolutely stuck with me. Ranma's journey here feels so earnest and real and is incredibly relatable. Their—using gender neutral pronouns, since despite where we land by the end, I got the feeling Ranma is more fluid (pun intentional) based on their characterization here—struggles to relate to and live with their mother and father, their friendship with Ryouga, and the struggles they endure regarding their relationships with Ukyou, Shampoo, and Akane are all incredibly portrayed. I was genuinely heartbroken when Ranma ended things with Shampoo because they wanted normalcy again and Shampoo didn't show feelings for Ranma's girl half, and that was double true for the could shoulder Akane gave Ranma's boy half.

Outstanding. Simply outstanding. While it looks like the plans for Cute Little Fang and a sequel to Ordinary Lives didn't pan out, I'm looking forward to reading the other work you have posted here, and I'm holding out hope you write more. Thank you so much for sharing your work with us, and I hope all is well!

I Remember reading this over on ao3 back when i first saw it. Tis a good fic.

This story is like nothing else I've read so far. I must admit, it was not an easy read. Especially at the beginning, I didn't really get hooked and I had a bit of a hard time to keep reading. I think that's because these 'Ordinary lives' are indeed quite ordinary and that makes them a bit dull compared to the usual Ranmaverse. There's very little humour in this fic, and Ranma in particular is depressed or in stress most of the time, and it's so unlike him that it's a bit unsettling for us.
But, I did read further and did not regret it at all. I'm often frustrated when authors don't go enough into the minds of the their characters - well here I can't complain about that! You made an excellent job of describing what goes on in Ranma's mind and your writing is perfect for that. I liked what you did with all the other characters: Ukyo, Shampoo, Ryoga, Akane, Mariko, Nabiki, Cologne. Genma and Nodoka, of course. They all stand out without being caricatures (except Genma maybe, but he really deserves it :p) Kuno is probably the closest to canon, but you made it look like he can be taught, so that's a real improvement from canon. :)
You made a good job of just hinting at elements from canon, like Shampoo having a cat-like grin or Akane calling Ranma a tomboy and Ranma calling Akane a jerk. I think you did it the most with Ryoga (or is it just me noticing?), with his unease about barbecues or the reference to P(izza)-chan (oh that was rich!), to Akari, to Yoiko, to the Bakusai Tenkestu... And I enjoyed it very much :)
And then the dream sequence was a good idea. A nod to canon, for us. And for Ranma, a hint that his life is not half as complicated as it could be - although it is as complicated as it would go in real life.
I found Ranma's mental path towards staying a girl forever rather convincing. Up until the sudden use of the tea: that was a mistake to act on impulse, and to make a decision mostly out of love for Akane, because that's the kind of decision you should make for yourself and not for someone else. But hey, nobody's perfect and people do make mistakes, so I found it perfectly okay. And then again, Ranma did it not only for Akane, but also because she liked the relationship it gave her with her mother, with other people in general, and because she found the alternative worse. I dislike it that Ranma won't tell the truth to Akane, but then again, that's probably the best choice given the situation. Not perfect, but by then Ranma has already put herself in a situation where there is no perfect solution. And god knows such no-win situations do happen in real, ordinary lives.
So all in all, it was a very interesting and insightful journey. Not as funny or thrilling as other Ranma fics, but with much food for thought, and for that I'm grateful.
Now I'd really be interested in that Ryoga fic you mentioned in the A/N. Ryoga with a girl curse is something that has been done before, but if you give it such a unique treatment as you did for Ordinary Lives, then I'm looking forward to it. Are you working on it?
PS: oh and I almost forgot: your the only author I ever saw giving a damn about Ranma's shoes. Many rant about what she does with her clothes, but really, the shoes must be a big problem! So thumbs up to you! :)

I really wish Ranma had revealed the truth to Akane in this final chapter, unless an eventual sequel will be about the truth coming out and Ranma having to spend a long long time trying to regain some of Akane's trust.

I do like Ranma choosing to go full girl, though I do think there should have been more scenes where Ranma was introspective on the matter of gender identity. There were a few points where it was mentioned that Ranma felt uncomfortable changing back into a boy, maybe explored that a bit more. Especially because Ranma seems to have no dysphoria in the girl form, yet the growing unease with the boy form definitely could indicate that this version of Ranma was transgender.

As it is right now, then it really seems like a sitution that Ranma will strongly regret if she and Akane ever broke up, because the decision to lock the curse seemed very motivated by Ranma's fear of losing Akane.

I really like your take on the true nature of the curse in this one. Even though it brings up some heavy and at least partially disturbing thoughts about our own behaviour to the people around us. But that's not necessarily a bad thing, honestly. If you come to think about it, there's a surprising amount of depth waiting in this story, if one is ready to commit to it. Good stuff.

Darn. I was wrong. Sad that I was too. Instead Ranma now has to live with a decision driven by emotions of rejection. I hope she and Akane stay together. She also still hasn’t come clean. Will she be living with a covered up false identity forever?

Oh man. I’m so far behind. But seeing how your chapters are gloriously long, I will write a review for each rather than just one at the end. Wow! Great chapter. You give so much emotional depth that even though each “talk” is essentially the same, they don’t feel redundant. I am miffed though that Ranma STILL hasn’t come clean with Akane. It seems like there is a perfect solution though. Ranma stays in limbo, comes clean with Akane, they marry, can still have kids, and they both get “the girl”! We’ll see if my hunches are right I guess. On to the next!

Not the ending I would have gone for... but it's good. I think Ranma should have told Akane the truth, probably about 4 chapters ago. But it's not out of character for your portrayal of him. Over all good story and well written.

It's nice to take a break from anime martial arts battles and mind magics and fiancées. This is a wonderfully well-written story and everything I wanted to read. For some time I have wanted to know how the curses would play out in the real, mundane world, and this story delivers quite well. I am glad I read it, and I look forward to reading more of your work.

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This was an excellent fanfic, and utilized a style of writing not often seen in the Ranma fandom, which makes it stand out all the more. It's not actually a style I'm typically all that fond of either, leaning more towards a sort of Shoujo/slice-of-life feel than anything else, so the fact that I was fairly invested all the same definitely speaks to its quality. I thoroughly enjoyed this the entire way through, and am looking forward to your next work.

My problem with your ending is that throughout this fic you were going for 'maturity' and becoming an adult. And while I'm fine that Ranma would make the decision to become a woman permanetly this decision was made in too rapid and ill thought out a fashion to be adult. Instead it felt like the panicked reaction of a child. And while this too could've been brought up and explored...you just moved on from there. And honestly that felt disengenious to the character journey this whole story was partially supposed to be leading us on.

Beyond that I did quite enjoy how all the characters grew in this story. You wrote interpersonal relationships phenonmenally well too. Overall, was a good story. Had its sticking points. But in the end something I enjoyed. Thanks for sharing.