What kinds of opinions has he historically had at these elected leaders, Internet? Actually, does this internet only serve NJ or does it reach to the other habitable afterlives somehow?

They've all got separate internets, though people regularly carry backpacks full of thumb drives between them.

He’s taken issue with people he’s accused of corruption, mostly. The accusations don’t happen to all be against his political enemies or anything.

An anti-corruption king presiding over a largely democratic federation seems okay. She's still gonna go do her education in the Republic but now feels more open to the monarchy-of-Jesus deal.

What does the NJ internet have to say about the Bastion?

Would she like the encyclopedia article, the latest batch of media imports, the tag on an online newspaper for news about it, the official New Jerusalm internet presence of the Bastion's government, ten years of back issues of this newspaper from the Bastion (last updated two months ago but due to add another chunk soon), a page about this style of fashion named after it, this website that sells tour packages, or one of these forum threads?

Official internet presence sounds like a good place to start with more tabs containing a tour package and a forum thread and a newspaper back issue.

The official website explains the tiered system of rights they use and the color-coded jewelry for indicating which tier someone is in. (People who aren't allowed to be there at all, people who need someone to babysit them, people who are allowed to live and work basically unsupervised, and people who've been vetted for specific sorts of high-trust jobs. People in the latter two categories can also apply for a license to vote.) They've got an overview of their laws and customs (it's an extremely oversimplified summary; they don’t like rape or vandalism or battery or inciting crime and you need a license to start a business and there are very high taxes) and a form on the website to apply to visit or move there. (This is redundant with the forms she's already filled out as long as she checked the little tickybox to opt in to also being considered for the Bastion in case they want her.) There's also a list of links to recent press releases (various people commend various other people for progress on issues that have names and sometimes acronyms! this accident that left three people crushed for three days was unacceptable and measures will be taken to keep it from happening again! this place is changing its laws to allow the sale of alcohol!), though the list was last updated three weeks ago, and a list of individual states and a little information about each, and a list of places to visit, and a link to the same tour site as she's already found.

This tour package links to another site for help with the bureaucracy to request permission to visit but if she has that she can get this extremely expensive tour where she can see the meadows and this city famous for its theater scene and this other city with famous architecture. Or this even more extremely expensive tour where she can see the meadows and one of those cities and this medieval reenactment village and this place with extremely famous mead and this totally different place with totally different famous architecture and this light show and this very extra bonsai garden.

This forum thread manages to contain an argument about whether the Bastion's school system is evil or just has high expectations, an argument about whether the Bastion should provide people with free food, an argument about whether people who get sorted there in the first place are better people than people who get sorted elsewhere, and an argument about whether this acronym is this other acronym or this obvious jargon. They're interleaved with each other. It's not a spectacularly clear reading experience but it is oddly civil.

This newspaper back issue contains a couple of news stories about Earth (there's an article about infant and early child mortality in South America and an article about French politics) and something about a new book coming out soon and an op-ed about relations with New Jerusalem and an article on domestic poverty and an article on doorknobs (they seem to have a big fandom in the Bastion) and an article on new laws about recently invented pollutants and an article about someone who got convicted of rape.

What is the argument that the school system is evil? Also, what are the stereotypes of people who get sorted various places, that seems worth knowing.

The school system is too coercive, takes too much time, is too strict, punishes failure too harshly, isn't up on the latest advancements in pedagogy, charges too much, charges the wrong people, should teach critical thinking, is teaching too much critical thinking, has been infiltrated by the Neo-Redwood school of pedagogy which will convince the youth to support Inspirationism, is actually the exact opposite of Inspirationist and only a moron would think otherwise, teaches rhetoric poorly, teaches logic poorly, teaches math poorly, honors adoptive parents' claims on their children's time too much, assigns repetitive homework, fails to prepare students for independence by providing too much structure and too little opportunity to practice meaningful decisionmaking, encourages people to echo things they were told instead of forming detailed models of the world, primarily serves to teach people not to rock the boat, and has had a handful of sex abuse scandals recently.

People go to nice afterlives because they're nice people. People go to nice afterlives because they're bad people. People become nice people because they go to nice afterlives. People who go to the Bastion are the nicest. People who go to New Jerusalem are the nicest. People who go to the Dead Republic are weird. There are billions of people in the Dead Republic and calling them weird is obviously silly. People in the Bastion are boring. People in New Jerusalem are mostly devout. People in general are mostly devout, what hyper-modern atheist bubble must you live in to come up with that as a stereotype. People in New Jerusalem are the most likely to be masochists. People in the Dead Republic are the most likely to be masochists. The Dead Republic has the best sex workers. The Dead Republic is a decadent den of debauchery. Actually the best people in the world get sorted into this one very bad afterlife that exists solely to make sure that good people can't continue to exist and improve the world. Actually that's insane. Actually you get into New Jerusalem by being Shinto. Actually Brahmins go to New Jerusalem. Actually people go to New Jerusalem for being naive.

Wow.

Is it time to go see if she's still dyspraxic?

It will be by the time she gets there!

Off she goes. She makes a mental note to find out what an Inspirationist is later.

They meet in a nice room with kind of smooth wooden flooring. The person at the door babysitting the sign-in sheet remarks on Bella being new.

"I died today. Somebody said I could find out if I was still dyspraxic here?"

"Well, you can dance and see how it goes. Don't expect to suddenly know how, even if you're suddenly capable of learning you'll still have to actually learn."

"If I don't fall over more than once, I'm much improved, I assure you."

"Well, you have fun finding out!"

"I will, I've always vaguely wished I could dance!"

So. Can she dance.

If she can she might find out fairly quickly. They start the night off with an easy line dance, just some grape vines and knee bends, and some people do watch the person next to them for a reminder of what they're doing.

She isn't steady, and she's not graceful, but she doesn't fall down!

The next one is done in trios and they pause to go over it for anyone who hasn't danced it recently. The footwork is mildly complicated and very fast and there are arm movements and parts where one person at a time does something different from the other two. Several people decide to sit it out and pick at the refreshments.

Too ambitious for her. What's there to be refreshed with?

Little glass bottles of milk soda and cartons of apple-peach juice, cubes of watermelon and cantaloupe, some kind of gummy nut thing, shrimp chips (flavored with shrimp powder), mushroom cookies (just shaped like mushrooms), and hummus with vegetable sticks. There's an adjacent restroom for handwashing if necessary.

Lovely! She will take a watermelon cube and try the chips - oh yum, she likes these actually - and dip some celery and then nurse a carton of juice, as long as nobody is looking at her like she's being rude.

Someone else who’s sitting this dance out asks if she’s new in town. He doesn’t seem to think her snack choices are notable.

"I died today if that's what you mean, I'm only in town for a few days while my application to the Dead Republic is processed."