In one piece and not being chased by the authorities

(From Ctrl+Alt+Del. Click for full sized Come on, you know I was going to snark it eventually.)

Today's strip made me do a double take. And, in the immortal words of Lewis Black... "I am confused."

Because CAD, as a rule, does not make me do double takes. CAD is wonderful. CAD is hilarious. But CAD doesn't grab me because of its epic storytelling, it grabs me because it's just so frikkin' funny.

But, you see... there's this thing with Emma that's been happening in CAD lately. It was just another little storyline, like we've been having the whole time. But they've always just been silly. Even that time when Josh tried to steal Winter-een-mas from Ethan and Ethan crashed through the roof and there was this big dramatic fight that took four strips... it was epic, and we wanted to find out what happened next, but through it all, it was still very CAD. In other words, it was comic strip storytelling. There was a storyline, but it was all for comedic effect and remained very silly throughout.

This storyline with Emma struck me the same way as any other storyline did. He met the girl, liked her, dated her, she clashed with Ethan (for other reasons), there was some epic quarreling, and a good time was had by all. But then this happened, and threw me for a loop. Then, on the very next strip Ethan heard Emma apparently plotting to kill Lucas.

To kill him.

(And of course, Ethan tried to warn him, but Lucas didn't believe him, because, frankly, nobody believes someone who has ever needed a Metroid drip or held up a sign that said Will Suck At Tekken For Fallout.

Personally, I wouldn't either.)

But it was still funny. It was still silly. It was still CAD. The whole thing with Lucas slowly starting to get paranoid about the rock climbing and the skydiving and even the hot chocolate was just... Lucas getting paranoid.

Then today Emma pulled out the gun.

And I'm all like "WTF, mate?" Because... she can't really be trying to kill him, can she? Because... that sort of thing doesn't happen in CAD. It's not the type of atmosphere where people might really die. Ethan has been hit with an arrow and stabbed by a ninja and choked by an ogre, but that was... different. If Emma shoots Lucas it's not like he's just going to pop right back up in the next strip. That was back when there was gag-a-day stuff going on, and CAD has more backstory than that now.

But it looks to me like she really is trying to kill him.

What's going to happen? I dunno. But Tim Buckley has me hooked, man. Hooked.