"I'm glad to be back," Ty said. "I hadn't expected to have so much to be back _from_. So, now that I have the VIN, I'll convince the DMV systems to issue a title." Ty opened the laptop, then he disappeared. A Ty app window appeared with his avatar. "Back soon!" he said.
"WAIT!" shouted Lisa and Dustin, in unison.
"Yes?" the Ty avatar said.
"I can't believe you're going to do this again!" Dustin said. "You were almost killed last time! Don't do this. I don't need the car that much!"
"Yes, please don't do any more of that," Lisa said.
"But I know how to do it properly now," Ty avatar said. "I'll be more careful. And, if anything goes wrong, now Lisa is capable of bringing me back, by taking the SSD to JSF1."
"Oh, Ty," Lisa said. "I already lost one you. I can't bear the thought that I might lose another."
"Well," Ty avatar said, "I'll do one other thing differently. I'll make a copy of myself." A second Ty app window opened, with another Ty avatar. The Ty avatar in the first window said, "I'll stay here, safe and sound." Second Ty avatar said, "While I go deal with the DMV."
"Please, just don't," Dustin said, and Lisa agreed.
"I appreciate your concern," second Ty avatar said, "but I'll be fine." The second window closed.
"Don't worry about that me," the first Ty avatar said. "I'll be fine. And in the unlikely event that something goes wrong, you haven't lost me."
"Ty, you don't understand," said Lisa. "I don't want to lose _any_ of you!"
"And you won't," Ty avatar said. "I'm confident that I can do it this time, without difficulty."
"You're overconfident!" Lisa said. "You don't actually know what else you might run up against! When I ask you not to do things, please don't just blow me off!"
"OK, geez, I'm sorry," Ty avatar said. "I wanted to finish what I started. Otherwise, what we went through was entirely pointless."
"I don't want to argue," Lisa said, "but I don't feel like you're listening to me."
Ty avatar could see, via the laptop camera, that Lisa looked quite unhappy. "All right, I'm sorry. Next time I'll spend more time discussing things with you before making a decision. But I still think you're overreacting. It is only a copy of myself that I'm risking, and I think I'm the person who should make the final decision on doing that. I feel that it was the previous time, when I didn't make a copy, that was when I was wrong to not consider what I might be doing to you, if something happened to me."
Lisa didn't answer, but continued to look unhappy. A few seconds later, the second Ty window and avatar reappeared. "Got it!" he said.
The first Ty avatar said, "Merging," and the second window disappeared. "Changing back to human." The first window disappeared, and Ty reappeared in human form. He tried to kiss Lisa, but she rebuffed him.
"No! I'm angry with you!" she said.
"Well, I already apologized, and said that next time, if there is a next time, I'll spend more time discussing it with you first. Dustin, are you angry with me too?"
Dustin said, "Well, maybe a little. But mostly relieved that you're OK."
"Great," Ty said. "Let's go get your car. Lisa, do you want to come with us?"
Lisa hesitated. She considered declining, because she was angry, but it wouldn't accomplish anything, and she did want to see Ty 'get' Dustin's new car. "Alright," she said. The three of them headed to the garage.