A resourceful, human teenager comically attempts to have a life and survive his job in an outlandish alien shopping mall at the crossroads of the Multiverse.
Deep in space, many light years away, there is a place that is conveniently located to every galaxy and every universe that has ever existed. In this very special spot is… a shopping mall.
But it is not just any collection of alien retail establishments. It is the Mall of The Multiverse, a sprawling structure that looks like a cross between the Earth’s largest shopping malls and Mos Eisley’s Cantina from Star Wars. (For more details on mall, click here.)
It is a consumer-friendly retail emporium with a super-charged alien twist. One can buy anything from a kitchen crockpot to an interdimensional transporter here. Thus, the mall attracts a constant influx of strange, exotic, and often dangerous alien patrons – especially during the holiday shopping season.
Helping to “run” the place is one lone, human named RYAN RANDOM. He is 16-years old (in Earth years). And he has been hired by the mall to be a Customer Service and Security Specialist – basically, a minimum-wage security guard with people skills… which is ironic, since none of the customers are actual people. Ryan is the guy who sits at the mall’s information desk in an ill-fitting uniform and answers inane questions all day long. He also deals with the occasional “security” issue, but his only tools for protection are a tattered, paper, mall map, a security-guard flashlight and… an electric scooter.
However, like a mall-based “Doctor Who,” Ryan is surprisingly effective with his very limited resources. His old, paper, mall map has important, life-saving information that has since been deleted on all the digital and holographic guides most customers use. He can confuse six-eyed ExoGoblins with the beam from his security guard flashlight, or use its handle to jam the lever on an Adromedan teleporter. His scooter also comes in handy for thwarting shoplifting Borgs or chasing loitering Iguanoids from the food court. And his ill-fitting uniform appears surprisingly “imposing” to many of the smaller Endocritters and Monotoids.
Sure, there are other Customer Service and Security Specialists at the mall, but they are all aliens and they never seem to show up for work (it is not exactly the most prestigious job in the universe). Unlike the other minimum wage creatures, Ryan actually has a sense of duty and responsibility that eludes many of the other species.
As a human, Ryan is also among the most physically- and mentally-limited of all the alien species that visit the mall. He only has two arms, two legs, a relatively small brain, and a complete lack of telepathic abilities or gravity-defying skills. What he does have, however, is even more important for surviving the challenges of outer-space retail management and security: a good sense of humor, an ability to improvise, and an easy-going appreciation for the absurdities of the universe.
He also has two really great friends.
There’s his best “male” buddy, DOVER, a sentient escalator at the mall, who has a unique view on the world, and an even more unique way of moving around in it.
And his sometimes-girlfriend, NEBULA, a multi-hued alien who is constantly getting fired from her jobs at the food court.
Ryan loves introducing both of them to some “good, old-fashioned, humanoid, party-hardy, fun times!” Maybe share a laugh or two, play a harmless prank, or just enjoy the Earth-teenager version of “hanging out at the mall.”
Standing in the way of their communal mirth is their alien boss at the mall, MR. MEANKINDER. He literally has three heads — an angry one, a nice one, and a confused one trying to mediate between the two. Mr. MeanKindEr is always either firing Ryan (the Mean head), promoting him (the Kind head), or leaving him in limbo (the Er head).
But Ryan never fails to triumph. He is Ryan Random, minimum-wage Customer Service and Security Specialist at the Mall of the Multiverse. And this is his story.
