Lead

Overview
Lead is certainly not the shiniest or most glamorous person in town, but few can match her when it comes to being useful. Physician, scholar and heir of a long-lasting industrial estate; Lead contributed to the advancement of both science and industry for decades and is still a very important person whose collaboration is essential for virtually every business. Lead even had a significant hand in the famous cyborgification of her close friend Molybdenum's daughter Technetium, although she didn't feel like publicizing her involvement, letting Uranium have all of the spotlights for herself. This actually sums Lead up quite well; she doesn't fancy being in the spotlight and would rather get her hands dirty than talking about it in front of a camera. As a result, and despite her immense wealth, she's very modest and has a ruthlessly utilitarian appearance and personality. Not that she looks down on being glamorous and flashy, but it simply isn't her thing, and she lets her wife Tin have all the fun with that while she stays in her shadow.

Relationships

 * Tin: Tin and Lead's relationship goes back a long way, although not as long as Gold and Silver's relationship. The two of them met in high school but Lead didn't feel the passion just yet as she still had her eyes on Silver at the time. However, Silver's fateful meeting with Gold, combined with Tin's insistent courtship eventually tipped her emotional balance and she gradually fell for Tin and her messy yet adorable character. The balance of power within their couple is clearly lopsided in favour of Lead, who is much more down to earth and focused than Tin, making her the responsible one leading the family. Despite this external dominance over her wife, though, Lead is deeply attached to her and suffers quite a lot when they're separated for a long period of time, even if she's good at hiding it.


 * Terne, Pewter: The two daughters she got with Tin, while Lead carried Terne, Tin got to carry Pewter. Terne and Pewter are deceptively resemblant to the mother that carried them; Terne being very down to earth and interested in the industrial family business while Pewter is much more precious and erratic, having inherited Tin's artistic sensibility. The two of them are not exact copies of their carrying mother, though; Terne's personality took a lot from Tin's meekness, while Lead's forwardness found a home in Pewter's personality. Lead deeply loves her daughters and likes to see the various traits inherited from her and Tin get mixed in different ways within their daughters’ personalities.


 * Silver: One of Lead's childhood friends and undoubtedly the most influential. Lead always had a very deep admiration for Silver, and inevitably, that admiration gave birth to romantic feelings during Lead's teenage years. Silver was oblivious of that and never ever knew about them, as Lead managed to move on and started looking towards Tin. Lead and Silver have stayed very close throughout the years, as much because of their close friendship as because of their important business ties.


 * Gold: By now, Gold and Lead are good friends, but this relationship took some time to take shape. In the early days, not only had Gold noticed that Lead was her (admittedly short-lived) romantic rival, but they also have completely opposite personalities and interests. Because of this, they spent years not being anything beyond "Silver's wife/childhood friend" to each other, but eventually, the proximity of their respective families helped break the ice between them. Nowadays, they get along very well, but they still lack common ground between them.


 * Copper, Electrum: Silver being a very important person for Lead, Silver's daughters are obviously very important persons as well. Lead looked after Copper and Electrum as if they were her own daughters and shared a lot with them...more so with Copper than with Electrum, actually, as Electrum's personality resonated much more with Tin's and Pewter's. Lead, now officially the girls' honorary aunt, is also very protective of them, and as such, isn't thrilled by seeing Copper getting increasingly closer to Zinc.


 * Molybdenum: Molybdenum is Lead's very own childhood friend and a precious little sister figure. Molybdenum has always listened to Lead's every word and always tried to imitate her as much as possible. Lead would be a liar if she said she didn't like the attention but at the same time she didn't want Molybdenum to just idolise her, so she strived to be a good role model for her, and ended up hiring her as one of her most valuable employees. A few years back, though, this peaceful routine got shattered when Molybdenum’s daughter Technetium got involved in a serious traffic collision. Technetium got away with her life while losing some very important bits, and the despair on Molybdenum's face hit Lead profoundly and made her resolute in finding a way to save Technetium. Lead is actually the one who had the initial idea of replacing Technetium's missing limbs with artificial ones, and she worked hard to make it happen. It took time, a lot of effort and a lot of stress but in the end, it happened.


 * Mercury: Meeting Silver didn't come without a catch; she had to meet Mercury as well. Lead quickly found why Mercury was known as "Quicksilver”, as life around was far from relaxing, Mercury’s wackiness often grinded Lead’s gears. They still managed to get along, in a weird way… Lead even used to get advice from Mercury back when she was pursuing Silver.


 * Bismuth: Mercury wasn't the only person that challenged Lead's patience; there was also Bismuth, Lead's little sister. Significantly more out-there and whimsical than Lead, Bismuth gave Lead her fair share of stressful moments during all the time she was in her care. Nevertheless, Lead deeply loves and cares for her, and it's also in no small part thanks to Bismuth that Lead grew to be the person she is now, so Lead could never even pretend to regret all the history she has with Bismuth.These days, Lead still sees Bismuth very often as she's Tin's personal tailor, but this time, she lets Tin be the recipient of Bismuth's oddness, something she's rather good at it.


 * Antimony: Antimony and Lead met through Tin in high school and always had a very easy-going friendship. Their relationship got shaken when it was revealed that Antimony was going out with Bismuth, revealing Lead's possessiveness towards the persons she cares about the most. Lead took some time to accept that her sister wasn't a child anymore and that Antimony wasn't a threat to Bismuth, although the process would've been much more delicate had Lead been aware that Antimony made her move on Bismuth when the latter was still in middle school. Blissfully unaware of that detail, Lead eventually resumed a good-natured relationship with Antimony, still a friend but also a sister-in-law.


 * Uranium: Uranium has been a business partner of Lead's for quite some time but it was only in recent years that the two of them had a much closer collaboration. The technology developed by Lead's company in the field of synthetic muscles allowed Uranium and her team to successfully restore Technetium’s body. Even after Technetium’s cyborgification, though, they stayed in close contact, partially for business reasons, but mainly because Molybdenum started a romantic relationship with Uranium, turning Lead and Uranium into pseudo-sisters-in-law.


 * Zinc: After a big fire engulfed a significant part of her industrial estate, Lead tasked Zinc of rebuilding her destroyed installations. Unfortunately, Zinc was still green and Lead particularly intransigent, and with each delay, the relationship between the two women only worsened, becoming completely sour by the end of the work. Lead and Zinc left on very bad terms and Lead certainly had no plans of seeing Zinc ever again, let alone talk to her...but Copper starting a quite significant relationship with Zinc threw a wrench in those plans.