Like I said, he's a self-absorbed jerk with ego issues. Aside from that, Bad Country is also wild as fuck. He goes hard. The best example of this, of course, is when he's on stage. He'll talk about ripping your guts out and eating them, he'll get up in your face with his tongue lolling out, he's like...feral feral. This is also him when he's partying and on drugs...so, a decent chunk of the time.

Outside of performing and partying, he's just a moody dumbass. Emphasis on the dumbass. He'll do pretty much anything on a dare and fights people constantly. He was known for being violent and quick to anger—so much so that before important high-stress events like award shows, his PR rep would be sure to sedate him with a joint or two just to keep him from hauling off and hitting whoever looked at him wrong. His pride is always getting the better of him and he feels the need to be the best. If that means punching someone, he's more than happy to oblige.

I did mention that he was moody as well—another important part of who he is. He has borderline personality disorder so his rejection sensitivity is high. He was never really able to keep a steady relationship with anyone other than his PR rep, Stuart, and one woman: Wilma. He likes to keep people at a distance. Even though both his pride and ego are bigger than he is (an impressive feat), he's incredibly insecure and very preoccupied with what people think. That's why he's so intense in his Insane persona: if people are going to percieve him, it might as well be on his terms.

Death

After an intense fight with Stuart, Bad Country took a handful of drugs and decided to take a ride out to the desert to think. While he was out there, high on god knows what, he ended up getting bit by a rattlesnake. Fucked up, in the middle of nowhere, in a lot of pain, he just kinda went "fuck this! I'd rather die than feel this, what the hell!" and shot himself in the chest!

When he woke up in the underworld, he figured he was just tripping and asked "What the fuck did I take?!"

Your life, dude.

Sexuality

Bad Country is bisexual and actually has a strong preference for men, but it's something that's he's repressed quite a bit. He didn't grow up in a household (or time) when it was okay to be himself and he's ended up with a lot of internalized biphobia and shame around his attraction to men. When he was alive, he hooked up constantly with his best friend/former PR rep, Stuart (gay), but made sure to keep it secret. He was always adamant that him fooling around with other men was just "guy stuff" and so it didn't really bother him—he just didn't want people getting the wrong idea about him. It was different with Stuart, though. He always felt weird about it and could never explain why. It was, of course, the romantic feelings he had for him—he just refused to believe that was what he felt.

However, after 25 years of being dead and then another 5 of growing closer with Stuart after he died, the two of them are now in a loving relationship. In life (and the first 5 years in death) they were very toxic—but they've been able to grow and get better together

Relationship

After growing closer to Stuart, he allows himself to show Stu his soft side. In life, they did a lot of fun and stupid shit together outside of work including sex; but they still had a pretty strained relationship. This was partially due to the professionalism and stress, of course, but also...they were both just...bad people. Especially Bad Country. Even after settling down with Stuart in the Underworld, there are still lots of times he snaps or accidentally hurts him. However, he's now able to make things right. They're extremely in love and would each die (again) for the other.

Growing Up

Bad Country grew up in Texas with his mother, Mary, and his father, Texas. He was an only child and a rebel—a direct result of his father's authoritarian parenting style. His family didn't struggle all that much. Jack had what he needed and not too much else; but enough to keep a kid happy. Part of keeping him happy was music lessons. Jack always loved music and instruments and as a child learned how to play the fiddle and piano. As a teen he picked up the guitar, harmonica, bass, and drums. He had also learned how to play spoons from his family in West Virginia. As he grew older, he also started to take interest in boxing/MMA and was able to take some classes at a local rec center. This was around this time that he started to really disobey his father. He started smoking at 14 and joined fight clubs when he entered high school. He also got into a lot of mischief and petty crimes with friends during this time.

His father, Texas was incredibly self-involved and thought he was above everyone else. It was for this reason that he was so strict with his son: he knew best. Texas was also paranoid that his own child would become better than him, so he tried to suppress Jack quite a bit. This failed miserably, as Jack simply learned to lie and sneak around and continued to be a wild child. Outside of trying to control his son, Texas spent a lot of time drinking and cheating on his wife. He'd had quite a few illegitimate children; but he never met any of them. Why Texas married Mary? She was simply an easy target. He wanted someone to control and she was young and desperate.

Mary was nurturing with Jack when he was young—in fact, she was always anxious about him and his wellbeing. In his earlier years, Mary made sure that her and Jack attended church every Sunday—however, as time went on and Texas broke her down further and further she eventually became very emotionally distant and apathetic. By the time Jack was in the third grade she had stopped making him come along with her. Shortly after, she stopped attending altogether. She had met Texas when she was 17 and stuck with her incredibly religious parents. She was a devout christian and believed in everything she had been taught, but felt suffocated by her parents, who had their own expectations for her. Then came Texas, who made her feel like a princess. She fell hard and he promised her a good life—a life where she could be free from her parents. Little did she know she was just being puppeted by someone else.

West Virginia

Between his neglectful mother and his abusive father, Jack was itching to leave. As soon as he graduated high school, he moved up to West Virginia to stay with his family there. He figured that he could get a job up there and save enough money to move to Arizona—which he did. Unlike his parents, Jack enjoyed his extended family for the most part. They were by no means perfect—in fact, they were all pretty neurotic—but they were nicer than his father. The Combses lived up in the Appalachian mountains and were a large family. He had over a dozen cousins and was the second youngest of all of them; so he was picked on quite a bit as a kid. He still had a lot of fun with them each summer, though, and had a lot of fond memories with them. It was with the Combs that he learned a lot of his survival skills like handfishing and catching snakes. It's also where he learned to spit and play the spoons. The only reason he chose not to stay with them was because their farming lifestyle just wasn't for him. He stayed up there for a year or two, mostly working and keeping to himself. After he'd saved up enough money, though, Jack quickly packed up and moved to Arizona, where he made up his mind that he was gonna be a rockstar.

Arizona Era

Shortly after moving to Arizona, Jack jumped around a lot job-wise. It was also here that he partook in a few robberies and some other petty crimes for the adrenaline rush. Aside from robbing liquor stores, he'd worked at a few bars, theaters, and various other venues setting up for musical performances. Through these jobs, Bad Country was able to meet some bands and their managers and was even gifted a guitar by a band member who thought he was particularly charming—and handsome...the guitar may or may not have been a gift after they hooked up.

After this, Jack started to play around the small town he was living in and eventually was able to form a band! They went by [name pending] and were able to gain some pretty decent traction before inevitably breaking up. Jack was hard to work with and found himself creating, joining, and leaving multiple bands. Lucky for him, a talent agent happened to attend one of the shows for a band that he fronted. The agent saw potential in Jack and agreed to work with him. Jack made it, obviously, and once he started to get popular enough, he was told that he needed a PR rep. It was at this point that he had started to go by the name "Bad Country"—as that was the name of his most popular song (and it made for a pretty badass stage name) and was finding it difficult to find anyone who wanted to work with him. He was gaudy, loud, and reckless, so representatives were a bit more than hesitant. They also worried he might have been a one hit wonder—he was older than most other musicians (late 20s at this point) and didn't have much more going for him than Bad Country. Stuart Brass, a young up-and-coming representative, however, saw him as a challenge and decided took him on as a client. He was always headstrong and wanted to prove his worth. Stuart also ended up becoming Bad Country's legal representative and they grew to be very close.

Fame

After working with Stuart, Bad Country rose to stardom. Everyone knew his name—he was a man whose name would go down in rock and roll history. It was a Cinderella story—and a miracle, considering how obnoxious and self centered he was. He had been smoking since he was 14 and got into cocaine when he moved to West Virginia; but once he got famous, he really started getting into heavy drugs. He was well known for his drug-induced antics and the luck he had surviving them. He was constantly speeding around on cocaine and, unfortunately, ended up hitting and killing multiple people. He was an adrenaline junkie with no regard for anyone but himself. He slept around a lot and couldn't hold down any kind of relationship with anyone. The turnover rate for his band was high, no one wanted to work with him. He couldn't handle fame, and yet? Despite it all he continued to stay a household name. He was always in and out of jail, constantly fighting people—giving Stuart many a headache. Of course, all good things must come to an end: he hit his peak just before he died. He didn't know this, but he was starting to become less and less popular. More people were recognizing what a bad person he was and didn't want to work with or support him. Lucky for everyone, I suppose, he ended up killing himself.

In death

After dying and waking up in the Underworld alone, Bad Country was lost. He had nothing left, not even his fame. In the Underworld, fame doesn't really...exist. Everyone there realizes that we all end up in the same place, no matter who you are or what you've done. He was also without Stuart, and felt terrible that he had left him on such a bad note. He had no certain idea how long he would be without him, but knew it would be a long time. Falling into a deep depression about it, he did what he does best: partied and binge drank! He also slept around, doing whatever he needed to to forget that he was no longer famous and no longer with the one person he cared about. After a few months of that, he realized he needed people. After his months of partying, he had started to befriend a couple twenty-somethings who lived in an apartment near his favorite bar: Jesse and Rebecca. They took a liking to him and decided to let him move in with them. After that, he looked for things to keep him preoccupied other than drugs and sex. One hobby he took up was tracking down predators and beating them. He also volunteered to teach self defense.

• His MBTI is ESTP-T
• His big 3 are scorpio sun, aquarius moon, leo rising
• His hat is a huge comfort item for him
• One night during a particularly bad trip, he carved his intials into the back of his hand to remind him who he was. Yikes! (Definitely not inspired by Cotard's Solution wink wink)
• His favorite song is Life in the Fast Lane by the Eagles
• He LOVES old cowboy movies and had a large collection of things from the old west! One of his favorites was the pistol he shot himself with
• Really enjoys gunspinning and thinks it's very sexy and cool. However—he's a klutz and has shot himself in the foot three times (in life) because of this. 2 times in his right foot, 1 in his left. The sole reason no one else was hurt was dumb luck. He's stupid
• There was once a rumor that he ate babies and way too many people believed it. When asked about it, he simply said "Yeah, tastes like chicken." Unfortunately, his sarcasm didn't come through and this ended up resulting in the worst work of Stuart's career
• Broke his finger one time "to see what it felt like"
• Doesn't like awards shows and fancy gatherings, hates the process of getting cleaned up and into a suit
• Has absolutely eaten pages from contracts just to prove a point/spite lawyers
• Likes to claim that Jack is just short for Jackass
• Weaponizes his tooth gap a lot. In life, he loved to spit coffee at lawyers during meetings. In the Underworld he's fond of using it at the bar to spit liquor
• Has a special bandana for his hat that he's had since he was young. He also has a special hairtie/ribbon to put his hair up!
• He's very good at catfish noodling—catching catfish with your hands. It's not something he does often, just something he knows how to do; as he used to do it with his relatives in West Virginia.
• Loves to play baseball. Unfortunately, he's just too tall :( ironically, he hates playing basketball and eventually hit the high school basketball coach for pestering him about it so much

Intro

The zombified Bad Country we all know and love now resides in a realm I've creatively named the Underworld. Think Corpse Bride—the Underworld was very much inspired by the land of the dead from that movie. There is some magic (for lack of a better term) in this world, specifically in terms of the "zombification process." That's for later. It also contains magic in that time and location are kind of nonexistent here. It's very flowy and everything kind of exists at once. In general, people in the Underworld have found their communities and are able to stay in them with the people around them. Someone from the 13th century may vibe with somebody from the 80s and they live together in an 18th century style neighborhood. There really isn't much logic to it, but I figured I'd try to explain what I have down!

Society

Despite people in the Underworld basically having complete and total freedom and the concrete knowledge that concepts like time and morality are made up, it's generally a safe place. People just want to have fun and exist in a way that makes them happy. There are always rotten apples, but for the most part they don't really do much.

The Underworld does not rely on money. People are able to exist as they please without financial restrictions. While some newcomers may take advantage of this and try to live out their wildest fantasies, they ultimately realize that it doesn't make them happy. Most newcomers are able to find community relatively easily and only use what they really need.

The main reason the Underworld isn't lawless is because everyone there realizes that there isn't a point to existence aside from to create their own, so they're much more at peace. They don't have the stress of money weighing on them, so they feel free to whatever they want. And because humans crave the familar, this means that a lot of people still want to work! If not simply to spend their time doing something impactful.

Zombification

Like I said, there is some magic in his world and a lot of it comes from zombification. The process of turning into a wild looking zombie like Bad Country can be anywhere between one to five years, with most people averaging 2 years. The process varies wildly from person to person and takes into account what they were like in life—specifically what they did. Bad Country was a tinkerer, loved to use his hands...so his hands grew. He lolled out his tongue constantly, it was his go-to picture face; so his tongue grew! However, not everyone experiences these kinds of changes. As for the markings they accquire: there's not much rhyme or reason to those. They just appear! Different shapes and patterns.

Stuart Brass

Stuart Brass is and has always been very uptight. He has rules he likes to follow, he has ways he likes things to be done. He does well under pressure but BOY is it hard! Bad Country constantly describes him as being "wound tighter than a two dollar watch" which is, well...pretty accurate. In life he was very much no-nonsense and a huge workaholic. While this put a lot of stress of him, it did get him far in his career! He was renound for being tough and getting what he wanted. Nobody wanted to mess with him. However, this meant that he was a bit unpleasant to be around—a very angry man. He was also a dick to Bad Country specifically, but BC was obviously no angel either.

Stuart looked down on Bad Country for the longest time. He was always calling him white trash and forgetting that he did, in fact, graduate high school! Of course, when Bad Country got fed up and humiliated him in a room full of people he stopped with the "backwoods white trash" comments and stuck to just being condescending. Despite all this, he came to develop a soft spot for Bad Country and enjoyed his company.

Since settling down with Bad Country, he's learned to be more flexible and less harsh. He's still the more serious of the two, but he doesn't get as angry or stressed as he used to.

Jesse

Rebecca