Inspired by Mai Magi (is she no longer on tumblr? couldn't find her) and my friend from insta (mosscoveredtroll) I made my own braided belt reccently! I started simple by doing a standard braid with 3 main strands (4 strands per "strand" though) and used this pretty bronze gold belt buckle I've got from a bargain bin ages ago. Finally it's time to shine has come!!
Making the belt was so much fun, I immediately made another one for my dear friend Meg's birthday present and already plan already on making another one for a craft swap with my dear friend @wuselwesen.
[id]Pic 1 & 8 are full body shots which incoorperate the finished braided black belt into an outfit. A fat, white, young seeming woman with long brown hair worn over one shoulder and glasses is wearing a berry-coloured dress. The dress is loose-fitting, and as such nicely accentuated with the braided black belt. She's wearing a berry-coloured bandana in her hair, with white lace edging. A black scarf, black leggins and black shoes tie in the black belt. A berry and orange patterned kimono-inspired jacket finishes the whole look!
Pic 2-7 show progress pictures of how the braided belt was made.
Pic 2: show the single strands of the belt being prepared and hung over a chair in the meantime
Pic 3: The beginning of the braids: the strands of shirt-yarn are being knotted to a bronze-coloured key (wait? a key?)
Pic 4: We see a finished black belt with a key buckle, which you use to tie the belt up.
Pic 5: But what's that?? More belt buckles?? (including the one seen in the full body shots.) Wait a moment... might these pictures reveal something?
Pic 6: Alas, the first belt turned out too small and the belt being worn in the outfit is actually the second belt! Surprise! They are very similar, one belt just has a key belt buckle and the other a D-shaped belt buckle. And of course the second one is longer (though you can't really tell, as it's wrapped around a bottle in the picture)
Pic 7: Apparently a braided bracelet has been made from scrap material! Also conveniently modeled on a water bottle.
the only reason people say that "mafuyu and tsukasa have nothing in common" when presented with mafukasa parallels is because they equate mafuyu and tsukasa being similar to "tsukasa has depression" because the fandom equates mafuyu's personality to being depressed and nothing else.
it doesn't help that people (primarily younger people in the fandom) who DO believe in mafukasa parallels end up making the mistake of portraying tsukasa as depressed because as of right now he is not (although it's possible he was in past because of his Very Unclear Middle School Backstory but that's irrelevant)
anyways, mafuyu and tsukasa are narrative foils because their core personalities are built off of the concept of wanting to make the people around them— especially their families— happy.
they both developed personalities at a young age based on someone they looked up to. for tsukasa, it was seiichi amami's performance that inspired him to be a star— a hero that could cheer anyone up. for mafuyu, it was her mother taking care of her that inspired her to be a nurse— and you can see the similarities from there.
for mafuyu, her identity would first come into conflict when her mother expressed her want for mafuyu to be a doctor— suddenly, "everyone's" happiness didn't match what she wanted to do, leaving her in a state of disorder and eventual depression.
for tsukasa, his identity was something he nearly forgot in its entirety at the start of the main story— becoming arrogant and fully absorbed in a hero persona, forgetting the kind person he truly is. furthermore, his current character arc seems to be foreshadowing that what "being a star" to him is going to be called into question— maybe it is something more than just being the main character that saves everyone.
their insecurities are incredibly similar.
in mafuyu's first mixed, mafuyu feels insecure towards ichika because unlike ichika, she feels as if her lyrics have no genuine meaning to be expressed to other people— despite them being her very real feelings. this is brought up again in her second mixed as well.
in tsukasa's third focus event, something similar happens. when watching seiichi's performance, he thinks that his acting is "real" and feels inferior towards him, which is ironic because tsukasa has been method acting this whole time. when tsukasa is acting out rio or bartlett or really anyone at this point in the story, it's not just those characters— it's a reflection of his traumas.
just like mafuyu, tsukasa undermines his passions he's poured his feelings into because someone else's work is more genuine in his eyes.
now, then, foils have many similarities and parallels (and i could honestly list a lot more), but how i define them is that they usually have some kind of major branching difference that MAKES them foils.
for mafuyu and tsukasa it's pretty straightforward.
mafuyu's people pleasing behavior comes from external expectations and pressures— her mother's demands.
tsukasa's people pleasing behavior comes internally, from himself— if he can't meet his own standards, if he can't be the perfect big brother or the perfect star, then he is nothing.
and even then, there's some overlap.
tsukasa's behavior was indirectly encouraged by his mother praising him for being a "good big brother" over the phone instead of asking him if he was okay while home alone.
mafuyu's terrified to be herself around other people because she doesn't want to worry or bother them— she doesn't want to be a burden— and projects her mother's expectations onto them, not realizing that they would prefer the real mafuyu if they knew the truth.
and the concept of mafukasa being foils is most perfectly and blatantly portrayed in these two cards.
mafuyu, the marionette, sitting limp on the floor— puppeteered by her mother's demands and donning a mask to hide her true self.
tsukasa, the jester, standing above everything else— puppeteering silenced plushies— his feelings. he's not being completely honest with himself, and he doesn't even realize it.
mafuyu has cut her strings and ripped her mask in half. she has acknowledged her true feelings and expressed them to her mother, even if she had to run away in the end.
color accuracy is lost bc of lighting but this was the start of the granny blanket project, I gotta take another progress picture when I knock out a significant amount
lycion wearing clothes is always weird cause. not used to it. but the very few times kui has drawn him with clothes. like modern day ones. he has such an expected vibe. like yeah you would wear that
Sorry for the watermark, but I just had to snip this absolutely adorable moment from "Into the Light" from the 2019 Tokaigi concert. To me, it almost looked like a private little dance between them; like Marina did a little curtesy, and then Pearl a little bow, like she was inviting Marina to dance . . . but then, given the conversation that followed the song, I think it was actually a little pantomime of how Marina tried to introduce herself to Pearl when they first met (when she didn't speak Inkling yet), and Pearl invited Marina to come with her so she could show Marina Inkling culture (despite not speaking Octarian herself)!
Well, regardless of what that adorable little bit was, things certainly did get kinda intimate for a moment there 🩵🩷