Dr. Iris Dennison

Antagonist

Female

59 (When Introduced)

Iris Brooks Dennison (Legally 'Iris Stewart')

Mixed (Black/White)

Lonette McKee

Rectangular

Approx 140 lbs

5'6

Chestnut

Tight curls, often worn up.

Brown

Human (Caster)

Golden Brown

Charming, Soft, Approachable, Deceptive, Maternal, Observant

Psychiatrist

Iris Brooks Dennisson was born in 1960 in Braxton Caster Community, a large and prospering but rather crime-ridden community in Massachusetts, US. She was the daughter of Lee Dennisson, a biracial civil rights advocate-- and Kay Brooks, a white singer and self-proclaimed flower-child. She was the third of four children, with two older brothers and a younger sister.

Iris grew up rather intelligent-- and surrounded by a family of drop-outs and C-students, she saw herself as out-of-place and sought a rich social-life outside of her family in order to feel more assimilated. Having plenty of friends and good grades, her youth was rather enjoyable and her future seemed bright from a young age.

After high-school, Iris attended Braxton Medical School to study psychology. There she befriended pre-med student Dr. Franklin Blythe, soon becoming so close that he referred to her as his 'dear sister' and they even roomed together for a couple of years until Iris began a relationship with Casting & Defense officer Jerome-Darnell Stewart, a man almost twenty years her senior. In 1981, they were married and in 1986, they had their first daughter, Patricia, and another, Eileen, in 1990, just as Iris entered the psychiatry field.

However, Iris and Stewart's relationship was strained. Stewart had a violent temper and was unsupportive of Iris's dreams and career. In 1991, nearing their 10-year anniversary, the pair went through a rather ugly divorce and Iris took their daughters to live in an apartment together. Eventually, she had Stewart arrested for showing up unannounced and even trying to take the girls out of the house without Iris's permission. When he persisted, Iris' friend Franklin, who had been living in Haling Caster Community, finally had to visit to convince Stewart to leave town, for the family's sake.

Finding decent success in her field, Iris managed to take care of herself and her family for a while.
However, she fell victim once more after serving in a court-case brought her face-to-face with non-caster right-wing politician, Rodney Perkins Sr..

Perkins was married, and politically as far from Iris as one could get. However, he was charming and handsome and after persistently pursuing Iris for a number of months afterward, promising her the world for her and her children, she fell hard for him.

She was his mistress for a number of years. Over and over again he promised her that he cared little for his wife and that he'd 'find a way for them to be together'-- and so Iris, in spite of herself, stayed firmly loyal to him, even when it led to her falling-out with Blythe, whose status as an openly gay man upset Perkins-- and even with her family, who Perkins viewed as boorish and 'below her'. He even had her convinced to put her career on the back-burner, giving her money and promising to take care of her and her kids.

Then, in 1996, Iris fell pregnant and gave birth to Perkins' son, lovingly named "Rodney Perkins Jr." in 1997. Silently, Iris wished Rodney Jr. would be born a non-caster, influencing Perkins to move forward in taking Iris and her family out of Braxton, to be with him. However, Rodney Jr. tested positive for energy veins, though faint. He was a caster.
Shortly after Rodney Jr.'s birth, however, Perkins began to lose interest in Iris, visiting the community less and less until he only saw Iris once in a handful of months, his son even less-- and Iris eventually gave up on her hope of being lifted out of Braxton and having an actual future with Perkins. Instead, she simply tried to convince him to have a relationship with their son, with little success.

Little by little, even the money he gave her began to stop until there remained very little evidence of Perkins ever being there, save for his son-- and the family had to move back into a small apartment while Iris worked on rebuilding her career, with no connections left in her life to aid her.

As a toddler, Rodney Jr. (Dubbed 'R.J') was diagnosed with asthma and had regular attacks, with Iris barely able to afford the medication needed for his inhalers on top of rent and schooling for her two older daughters. She reached out to her family for assistance but was turned away. Eventually, she swallowed her pride and stooped to begging both Perkins and Stewart to help their respective children's financial needs. She received no answer in return from Stewart, and a single 100$ cheque from Perkins.

Then, one particularly rough asthma attack sent Iris rushing to the hospital with two-year-old R.J in her arms. He was treated in the emergency room, which left Iris with a crippling medical bill. However, a couple of nights later, it became evident that R.J hadn't been treated properly, as the asthma attacks returned just as violently.

Frustrated and unsure of what to do, with her little remaining trust of the hospital staff in Braxton, Iris tried one last thing. She called up Blythe, who immediately called for a vehicle to transport the mother and child to his office in Haling.

A quick examination proved that R.J had been taking the wrong medications, the ones he needed not even provided by the community's healthcare system. Determined to help the child, he snuck out of the community and into a non-caster hospital, using magic to convince the staff that he worked there and making off with plenty of asthma medication for little R.J.

What's more, he paid off Iris's hospital bill and reassured Iris that her past actions were forgiven.
From then on, Blythe assumed guardianship of Iris's children, helping pay for their educations, giving them occasional rides up to Haling for check-ups and becoming somewhat of a father-figure to them. Understandably so, he was soon named godfather of all three kids.

However, the experience had turned Blythe and Iris sour towards the treatment of casters and the Thomlin-law system-- and when Blythe revealed that he'd joined The Uncontained and was moving to Canada in 1999, she barely flinched. Though he still sent her family support from afar.

Then, once Blythe had worked his way up to the top of the rebel organization, he offered Iris an online job helping The Uncontained with important documents, and she heartily accepted.

But then, when R.J's father decided to have a mild, half-assed change of heart and occasionally visit his now teenage son, he eventually managed to discover files on Iris's home computer which revealed her side-job-- and, horrified, he attempted to use the discovery to have her put away.

However, on Iris's court date, Blythe made another unplanned visit and he stood before all those involved-- and claimed Iris's innocence. Suddenly convinced, Iris was released-- and the family fled to Canada with Blythe in 2014.
Up there, Iris took a job as a beloved psychiatrist for all three Ontario communities and her children moved into a nice home in Thomlin Caster Community . Still, the entire family found work within The Uncontained. Iris used her job to find potential candidates for the organization's witch-farming branch, Patricia worked as an empath for members of the organization and their families, Eileen became a general footsoldier for the cause and R.J, less magically inclined himself, found his calling as a charmist tech-smith (adding magical elements in the form of pre-made charmery into various tech and weapons for The Uncontained.)

In the few years since then, Iris has been an important member of The Uncontained and has been the psychiatrist of both Kyle Hausman and Mick Salgado , the latter she nominated as a potential witch, which led to his capture and transformation at the witch farm run by Lawrence O'Sullivan .

March 22nd, 1960

Jerome Stewart Rodney Perkins Sr.