Arbustombre (disambiguation)

The following is about the Dozerfleet Comics anti-villain in the Gerosha multiverse.

For the Marvel Comics character Samuel Smithers, see Plantman at Wikipedia.

Jeral Cormier (a.k.a. Botan the Plant-Man) is a Dozerfleet Comics anti-villain that has a complicated friendship with Ciem. In spite the similarity of his name to Samuel "Plantman" Smithers in the Marvel universe, Botan was originally intended to be a parody of the film version of the Spider-Man villain Sandman.

He is portrayed more sympathetically and originally in the Comprehensive Gerosha universe of Ciem: Vigilante Centipede than he is in his webcomic debut.

Fictional biography of character
Main article: Fictional history of Botan

Before Ciem 1 / Vigilante Centipede
Jeral grew up with a chip on his shoulder, since his parents never thought too highly of him. Desperate to win their approval, he marries Gvadouin and settles down in Viron. However, his parents still end up looking down on him. He decides to try to make the best of his new life, but is then kidnapped by a rebel faction of Phaelites who later call themselves the Phaletori. These Phaelites, in violation of the developing code of ethics the Phaelites are creating for their experimentation on humans, force Jeral into the experiment and offer him pills to take to treat symptoms if he decides not to participate with them in battling the Meethlites. Jeral doesn't believe them; and finds his suspicions justified when the pills are unable to permanently change him back into his human form. His transformation enables him with the power to regenerate himself from almost any injury and also to manipulate plant matter at whim. He begins to fancy himself as a demi-god of plants, but still wishes to return to being human. He would later learn that the ringleader of the future Phaletori broke code by changing the formula behind the others' backs so that the medicine would build inside him and remain latent until activated by Milthuen Prototype blood.

During Ciem 1 / Vigilante Centipede
As his condition deteriorated and vengeful and bitter thoughts began to consume him, Jeral witnessed nearly every relationship in his life disintegrate in front of his very eyes. His marriage to Gvadouin ended in a swift divorce; his rebound girlfriends began to reject him, and even his own parents had tried to kill him.

He takes some time off from his job at the Hazy Eighties Bowling Alley to study his powers in more detail. When the last of his medicine runs out in late December, he has an emotional breakdown.

In the webcomic, this results in both the loss of his job and a direct confrontation with then-Candi "Stevens" Flippo. His first battle with Candi ends in a draw, and he escapes into the cold winter's evening whilst warning Candi not to get involved in his affairs. In the book, he simply starts causing plants to act up and terrorize Hazy Eighties patrons. Embarrassed, he flees.

He tries to hide his condition for a while and live in Farrenville, where he convinces a naive Miriam Flippo to introduce him to a researcher named Emily. He and Emily quickly strike up a relationship, but Emily is soon kidnapped by the Phaletori for trying to expose them. This enrages Jeral, who takes to a brief stint in a life of crime to gather information. When a carjacker steals his car, his last possession from his life with Gvadouin, he seeks violent revenge and ends up murdering the carjacker by having the carjacker eaten by a tree.

Candi arrives on the scene to intervene, but her powers fail due to her pregnancy. In the comic, this leads to Jeral attacking her but relenting because he cannot harm an unborn. In the book, he expresses regret at his actions and explains his plans to Candi. She finds out only after trying to stop the carjacker that her powers are failing and that she's pregnant. Either way, Jeral expresses his regrets and promises to return to Candi's life. However, he informs her that he needs some time away from Dirbine/Evansville and that Candi should keep a low profile in his life while she waits for the baby to be born. Candi agrees, and Jeral vanishes into the soil.

Ciem 2 / Nuclear Crisis
Jeral moves to Florida and tries to rebuild his life. However, his only friend ends up being a young girl named Tabitha. He hides in her back yard by pretending to be a sunflower. But when Tabitha is forced to betray his secret by her mentally-unstable mother Sheryl, Jeral is forced to flee. He gets a job at a TV station, only to have to fake his own death to escape an assassination attempt by Sheryl when she arrives with a sniper rifle.

Finally learning the truth about Emily's whereabouts in Tampa, he disrupts the Phaletori as they are about to have her executed in a sadistic ritual. He flies into a full rampage, turning himself into a walking redwood tree; and takes vengeance on his creators. He and Emily flee to Dirbine/Evansville after a quick wedding, wherein which they intend to reconcile with Ciem and capture Milp in a last-ditch effort to cure Jeral of his Botan entity.

Ciem 3 / Condemnation
However, Milp and Lobe intervene and foil the plot with an even more dastardly one of their own. Lobe, however, accidentally kills himself while battling Ciem, so Botan swallows up Lobe with plant minions and feigns a battle with Ciem in the hopes of putting suspicion on himself and off of her.

In the comic, when Dolly Malestrom steals the Earwig suit and helmet from Ploribus' lab, she begins to have recollections of painful stories Candi had told her about Candi's past tormentors. The helmet begins to consume Dolly's mind, sending her into a rampage to foresee the fall of all of Candi's past enemies. Shortly thereafter, Milp uses an AI backvisor similar to the one used to create the first Musaran as a means of controlling Botan to prevent him from destroying her. Forced against his will to join forces with Milp, the two of them become giant monsters and proceed to destroy Dirbine/Evansville. In the books, the Earwig AI makes Dolly want to kill Botan simply because she thinks it'll be fun and because she assumes him to be a bad guy anyway.

Also exclusive to the comics, Dolly witnesses the death of her own nephew Henry in his Musaran II form, and decides that she will have to destroy the helmet to her suit the minute she finishes with her quest to rescue Candi from Kolumn. She is particularly horrified when she realizes that she had pulled a gun on her own nephew and had almost murdered Botan. Henry doesn't factor into the books, but Dolly still realizes the AI's influence on her is not healthy. She becomes particularly disgusted to learn that she displayed criminal negligence by delighting in abandoning Nolle to burn to death in a building fire.

Upon Dolly's return with her friends and the destruction of the Earwig helmet, she uses her new discoveries about her own dark side and the effects of the AI backvisor on herself to deduce where to find Jeral and the backvisor Milp had attached to him. She destroys the backvisor by firing a pistol at its center, freeing Jeral from Milp's control.

Jeral initially acts stunned when the backvisor is shot off, but recovers quickly. After reconciling with Dolly, he betrays Milp and uses his botanokinesis to create giant thorn bushes to destroy her with. This also destroys the Forest Funnel Town and frees Ciem and the other heroes from Milp's grip. The blood he absorbs from Kimiyato's demise ends up curing him, as he reverts to his human form permanently and loses his powers. He and Emily proceed to live happily in Viron and have a son named Harvey.

Trivia

 * In the Ciem webcomic series, Botan is only present in parts 1 and 3. He became legendary as an anti-villain in Florida during the Ciem 2 / Nuclear Crisis timeline, but is not depicted in these stories at all.
 * Jeral was originally created using the Plant Sim mortality state in The Sims 2: Seasons.
 * SimPE was used to track Jeral's memories when most of his biography on this site was first written.