Mason Mannien

Mason Manninen is a professional armwrestler in WI, who uses a strange but successful variant of a deep hook.

With several nicknames over the years including "Noodles", "Farm Truck", and "Vodka-Cran-Man", Mason is surrounded by an almost mythological imagery within the minds of his fellow pullers. While he certainly does not enjoy 'celebrity' status amongst his peers in the sport, he is remembered in an unusual way that makes his name a very recognizeable one. Mason's fame in the underground and lesser-known circles has exploded in the past few years.

He is a member of the Fox Valley Finger Blasters Arm Wrestling Club in Appleton, WI.

His unorthidox style is astonishingly strong and he uses it to catch wins on reputably strong pullers. As he rises the ranks, the outright bizarreness of his arm wrestling has created some widely circulated lore on his origins.

Roughly summarized below is a narrative that's been distilled from various accounts of Mason's beginnings and trajectory through history.

## LORE OF MASON

In the late 17th century, a young stone mason was on his way to a town meeting, traveling on foot across the countryside. His road entered a large grassy field, and to his left he noticed a storm gathering. Squinting his eyes and peering closer, he saw two struggling figures beneath the dark, rolling clouds. Lightning flashed across the sky, and startled the young man.

He turned and made for the two figures out of sheer curiosity, and as he got closer he noticed an energy in the air that sparked and crackled. The grass seemed rigid and non-waving, despite the whipping winds that rose as he neared the scene. His skin tingled and his hair stood on end.

He approached, and noticed one of the figures was a dark-robed old man holding a long marble staff. His robes were elegant and laced with gold, but his staff was a work of beauty. A long piece of marble with a milky wash of light fluorescent color, coming to a sharp point at the end. Holding the staff high in the air, he shouted strings of words of a very harsh and archaic tongue. The mason gasped in astonishment as he realized that the lightning from the storm was actually striking the tip of the staff with brilliant and tremendous cadence. The 'slamming door' sound of the lightning shook the mason's ribcage and rattled his teeth.

Looking further, he noticed that the other figure was a giant of a man, at least 7 feet tall and thickly muscled. The lightning illuminated his naked mass and showed a red hue to his skin.  The giant gnashed its teeth and screamed terrible and wicked insults at the old man. It ran on all fours, sending dirt and dust up from each fist and foot tearing the ground.

The young mason unconsciously grabbed a fist-sized stone from the ground and held it firmly, though he knew the souls he'd stumbled upon were likely impervious to any threat he posed.

"Who are you?" The young mason shouted courageously, "And why do you fight such a vicious and evil battle in these peaceful lands?"

The old man kept his gaze on his opponent, but the beast-man whipped his head towards the young mason and howled back at him:

"I have traveled through the stars, I have eaten souls of much bigger foes than thee, little ape." His voice was gravelly, and had an echo behind it that was much deeper. Smoke poured from his lips as he spoke, and his eyes shined with their own terrible red light. "I will devour this old fool who thinks he has bondage of this world, and I will savor your gentle young soul when I am finished."

The giant leaped in the air towards the old man, and his mouth unhinged unnaturally downwards to reveal rows of long, black teeth.

A brilliant flash and BOOM of lightning sounded, striking the old man's staff directly at the top as he held it high above his head. As if it were channeled, the lightning broke up into millions of smaller bolts, chaotically fanning out from the staff towards the giant man's olympian attack. The wave struck the giant like an enormous fist, and he tumbled backwards.

The young mason felt a wave of excited cheer go through him as the beast went down. But, it scrambled back to its feet in an astonishingly fast recovery. It poised back onto its great heels and prepared to lunge at the old man again.

Again the old man raised his staff, but this time there was no flash of lightning. Panic washed over the old man's face as he strained his arm upwards and called in his ancient tongue for lightning to come down, but none came. He'd called too greedily for the earth's help, and it did not respond. He looked to the young mason with a pleading in his eyes.

The beast snarled with a horrible laughter and sprung off of its hind legs.

The young mason raised and threw the stone, with all of his might. He threw with more strength than he could have ever asked of his body before. A great power rose from deep within him, beyond his physical self. It manifested from a miniscule portion of what was the young mason across multiple planes of existence, and phased into and out of the world in a vibration, before cascading upwards in size and intensity and filling the young man with every ounce of potential that every possible universe offered to him.

The projectile screamed through the air and struck the jaw of the beast-man, whipping his head sideways and crumpling the otherworldly tissues of the beast’s face. He fell to the grass and screamed in agony. Small black horns broke the skin of his forehead and grew outwards from the beasts head as it writhed and raged in the grass.

"You vile ape! How could the great ones give you this gift so early in your existence!" He bellowed, turning his ruined face to the young mason. From the impact, his jaw hung limply and one of his eyes was deflated and hung from it's orbital socket. The horns curving outward from his head grew enormous, as if they were responding to his fury. They grew to the length of a man's arm. "It matters not!" He bellowed, "I will-"

Before the beast could finish his threat or carry it out, the old man stepped forward and thrust his staff like a spear, with great effort.

The beast-man noticed a moment too late and could only hold up a hand in defense. This meager resistance failed to stop the impelling blow. The red hand was what the pointed top of the marble staff struck first, piercing directly through it, and continuing on to impale the great red chest.

The beast-man fell backwards into a heap with the marble spear sticking upwards from it. It exhaled smoke in plumes with rasping, agonized yells and grasped at the spear with it’s free arm that pinned its other hand to its chest. The great muscled forearm rippled as it grasped the marble shaft and pulled with all of its might, but the spear did not budge, it held to the flesh as if bound to it.

The old man spoke for the first time in the common tongue. “Your penance to defeat is to leave this world and continue to wander the universe as you once did. This body you held must remain a part of this world, as I have staked its heart and tethered it here. Go!” He shouted.

The beast man’s horns began to curl in their growth, growing in all directions. He coughed and spat, and rolled on the ground trying to remove the spear. His skin began to exude thick black smoke from all of its pores, and he swung his arms out and clawed handfuls of grass and dirt from the ground.

He bared his fearsome teeth once more and spoke: “I will come back. Vengeance is-”

As he said this, the clouds parted in the sky above him, and the smoke billowing from him began to spiral furiously upwards in a funnel. It formed a massive pillar upwards until no more came from the body, and the funnel disappeared upwards, careening into the unknown.

The valley settled. The wind slowly died to stillness, and the clouds disintegrated in the sky. The transition to calm was nearly as astonishing as the chaos that preceded it. Returning to a simple plains of grass with two dark figures in its’ center, the valley rejoined the earth.

After a long moment, the old man turned to the young mason. “If not for you, the world would have had a terror hiding in its shadows for a millenia. And I would have suffered an agonizing defeat. Whatever you would ask of me, I would grant it for you be it within my power.”

The young mason considered this a moment, then asked: “How did you know the beast was vulnerable?”

The old man smiled, and said “You damaged the eye that faced me. It did not see my swing.” The old man pointed to him, and asked, “We fought not on your world, or in your valley. What doorway did you enter to find us?”

“I simply came across your struggle in my travels.” Said the young mason. He turned his head and gazed back at the road he’d strayed from to approach. It seemed very far away.

He turned back and thought for a moment. “I ask for the demon’s strength.” He said flatly.

The old man widened his eyes. “I hope you know what you ask. These words between us are no flippant exchange, it is a contract that we enter. And the beast’s strength originates from its caprice, and its malice.”

A moment hung in the air, and the old man walked over to the body of the beast. Its horns had grown to a tremendous size and curled and twisted in a horrible pattern over the grass. The gnarled, muscled mass had both arms reaching in desperation as if it still struggled to escape its impending extradition. He knelt, and whispered an incantation to the marble staff that stuck from the body.

Suddenly, the young mason felt a hot, painful sensation all over his body. His eyes ached and burned and he strained and blinked them furiously. He fell to his knees and screamed in pain. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw clearly from another perspective. He realized that the perspective he was seeing was that of the demon, laying in the grass, looking upwards at them with its one good eye.

His body rippled and creaked, and he felt his bones and muscles vibrating terribly. Falling prone, he lay in the grass and seized for several moments before laying still.

“Get up, man” Said the old man. “You’ve much to do in this world. The tendons of the beast are now under your skin, governing your muscles and pulling your skeleton. Mind that they don’t govern you”

The young man turned his head upwards and both the old man and the demon’s body were gone. He lay alone in the field.

## EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS

Though seemingly fantastical and dramatic, rumors of Mason's seemingly otherworldy powers have some eye-witness evidence to back them up. His closest friends and teammates regard him as an anomoly, but pullers who encounter him and don't know him see him more as a mythical creature than an armwrestler.

His quiet disposition and friendly personality are admittedly disarming. But, spending time with Mason will reveal a cryptic and nebulous manner of speaking, a bizarre and animalistic style of pulling, and a strange ability to appear and disappear out of thin air.

Following are dated, eye-witness accounts of paranormal experiences involving Mason Manninen.

2/11/2023 Location: Fon Du Lac, WI

*We were driving back after a tournament, and Mason was wearing this kind of cool, retro jacket all day. Very out-of-the ordinary, like an 80's construction worker. We had just gotten some chinese food and he got a weird bottle of Chinese Plum wine from the restaurant and drank most of it in the back of the pickup on the way home. When we arrived, we all jumped out and headed into the garage attic to play a round of Super Smash Bros. He zipped up his jacket and yelled "You guys go ahead I'm gonna pee in the yard" as he started drunkenly peeing on the driveway.*

*We went straight upstairs while he was down there, didn't stop for anything. I got up there first, and something hanging over the chair irked me. The jacket. His weird jacket. Hanging there as if it was there all day while we were at the tournament. And beneath it, the half-drank bottle of plum wine. There were no other doors to the garage, no other staircases, and no windows. And then up he came right behind us, with no jacket on. We asked him "Mason how did this stuff get up here so fast?" And he gave that look of recognition, that sly smile like he knew something, but just said "I don't know what you're talking about. Can I play as Ice Climbers this time?"*

6/4/2022 Location: Appleton, WI

*I don't do well with edibles. I tried a half of a gummy once and it really messed me up. I was telling Mason about it and I mentioned I still had the bag. He asked if he could see it.*

*Man, I sat there and watched Mason eat the whole bag of those fuckers. His mind must need fuel like his body does. He ate enough edibles to time travel. Then he just got in his truck and left to go get drunk in Oshkosh or something. Shit's wild.*

[REDACTED]