Tentacle arms? / Holding up fabric?

So I wanted to make a fursuit based on this character ( Still working on the colors )


and I needed to know how I would be able to do something like tentacle arms? Would it even look right? I don't think I've seen it before. Also, would there be anything I could do to make the arms semi functionable? Like to pick things up and such? I was thinking about adding a little slot for my thub but i dont think that would make a difference...
Also, or the ears I wanted to make them out of fleece, so they are very light, but I don't want them to drag around. I want them to be somewhat stiff when I'm moving. How would I go about that?