Sean just stared for a moment at Solar's overreaction, then cracked a huge smile, followed by a heartfelt laugh. Pepper seemed pleased as well, looking at Solar with a mix of amusement and interest. Sean was quick to explain, as soon as he got his laughter under control. "Sorry, just -- wow, you do not do things by half-measures, do you boss?" He took a deep breath. Then turned to Pepper. "Can we start with drinks? Two colas with ice, please."
Pepper gave a nod, heading further down the counter to get the drinks ready. Sean, having sufficiently recovered himself, gave Solar an apologetic hands-up look. "Sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. I was just surprised by how intense you were -- it's a good thing! In this case it's not an actual guy, per say, nor an actual fence. It's a group called the trade guild, and they have a lot of influence with the government and leaders of Vacuo. The fence, in this case, is rules that the guild convinced the government to set up as laws -- laws governing trade. In a perfect world, if people agreed to buy, sell, or trade with each other it'd only be those people involved..." Sean looked slightly to one side, a hint of irritation making its way into his voice. "But the guild think they should run the show for everyone. Every business in Vacuo needs a guild permit to buy or sell, and getting a permit means you have to give the guild some of the Lien you make every month. The guild also does things like mess with prices and control supply shipments, and since they've got the backing of the government they can declare it 'restricted' or even 'illegal' to buy, sell, or even just own certain things. Some of it makes sense -- poisonous plants, for example -- but when they force up the price of inexpensive weapons parts used by a lot of villages, or require huge fees and obscene amounts of paperwork to transport large quantities of hardwood, or forbid importing Mistrali cotton from anyone except their business partners... those sorts of things make life harder than it has to be, and occasionally people even suffer and die due to shortages. That, my good Solar, is the 'fence' around all of Vacuo."
Pepper had brought over the drinks during Sean's explanation, offering one to Solar as she joined the conversation. "People like Sean and I? You might say we're 'fence breakers'. We break the rules in secret, do things our own way. It's called smuggling, the 'other business' I mentioned. Fair warning -- not everyone who's involved is a good person, so be careful who you talk to about it. You can trust Sean to know the ins and outs, though."
(OOC: Realized after the fact that I might need to have a Worldbuild approved for the trade guild -- I'll check with the admins and, if needed, edit my post later to adjust. Just FYI.)