Hi everyone, we are excited to return with new MOTA events after our break! More information about the events will be posted in due time, but for now, here's what you can look forward to on @mota-collab this year:
A.U.gust - 25-31 August ✅️ Masterpost
Whumpfest - 8-15 September ✅️ Masterpost
O.C.tober - every Friday in October ✅️ Masterpost
Mota Advent Calendar 2025 - 1-24 December ✅️ Masterpost
Fluffy Friday - 2026, dates TBC
As usual, you will be able to participate with original works or recs. More to come soon!
Thanks to everyone who recommended, created, shared and otherwise took part in our 2025 MOTA Advent Event 🥳🥳
It was an incredible month of artwork both new and already much loved by the MOTA fandom.
During the 2025 MOTA Advent, we received 59 amazing treats: 26 creations and 33 recs (not counting themes of the day, answers to asks and our various games). A big thank you to the 13 people who participated in the 2025 MOTA Advent! 🎉
We hope all of you have a wonderful holiday time and we'll see you all in the new year for more community events!
In the meantime, if you want to revisit treats from our advent event, check out our masterposts:
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9 - Day 10 - Day 11 - Day 12 - Day 13 - Day 14 - Day 15 - Day 16 - Day 17 - Day 18 - Day 19 - Day 20 - Day 21 - Day 22 - Day 23 - Day 24
🎄 Merry Christmas from the MOTA Collab Advent team 🎄
Today's theme of the day was love, and we were gifted an art rec by @onyxsboxes, a fic rec by @amiserableseriesofevents and a fic rec by @middlingmay. You can find them here.
We hope you all enjoyed the treats we shared today.🎄
🎁 Would you like to revisit treats from earlier days? Check out our previous masterposts:
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9 - Day 10 - Day 11 - Day 12 - Day 13 - Day 14 - Day 15 - Day 16 - Day 17 - Day 18 - Day 19 - Day 20 - Day 21 - Day 22 - Day 23
Stolen Hearts by EternallyTired17, @eternallytired17 [Fic, 11k, Gale "Buck" Cleven/John "Bucky" Egan] New York City, 1998.
This new guy’s been showing up to the bar where Gale works who insists on calling him Buck despite knowing his name. Gale supposes he should be grateful for the distraction of the patron’s crooked smile and obviously fake New York accent, especially considering all the strange happenings going on lately. He keeps missing his mom's calls, a moustachioed cop keeps tailing him around town, and a week ago, two Brits beat him up for no reason outside his apartment. To make matters worse, he’s been tasked with taking care of his neighbour’s destructive husky named Meatball for God knows how long.
Surely this handsome stranger is the least of his worries... right?
@middlingmay rec: Clegan Caught Stealing AU! Another great work in progress that I'm excited to keep up with, and I'm loving how the author is weaving the mota world through this AU. Excited to see where it goes!
So Tonight That I Might See by obsidianrituals, @shinigamidreams [Fic, 53.5k, Gale "Buck" Cleven/John "Bucky" Egan] Gale suffers a life-altering injury only steps from the place where he’s finally meant to be safe. He and John build a new home together, filling in the cracks of their previous life with gold.
@amiserableseriesofevents rec: I cried.
Heartbreaking and sweet at the same time, filled with golden pure hope even in the darkest of times. Post-war Buckies always have a special place in my heart and these two, and their cat, and their bulbs, deserve the whole world.
✨John “Bucky” Egan✨ by @wecomrades [Art, John "Bucky" Egan]
@onyxsboxes rec: Linda's artwork is stunning; it's like looking at a photograph of Bucky. The details make him seem so real, and the shading is superb. I could stare at it for hours.
You can use the daily theme as inspiration to create new fanwork, or simply enjoy the activity as a chance to reflect on your fandom and personal experiences. The only rule is to be kind to each other.
Today's theme of the day was anticipation, and we were gifted an art rec by @mota-fanart-gallery, a moodboard by @avonne-writes and a drabble by @onyxsboxes. You can find them here.
We hope you all enjoyed the treats we shared today. More amazing gifts to come tomorrow!🎄
🎁 Would you like to revisit treats from earlier days? Check out our previous masterposts:
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9 - Day 10 - Day 11 - Day 12 - Day 13 - Day 14 - Day 15 - Day 16 - Day 17 - Day 18 - Day 19 - Day 20 - Day 21 - Day 22
Artist note: Crank makes Gale's gift. (Drabble 7/7) Thank you so much for following this wee series. I really enjoyed exploring Crank's POV, and i hope i gave him justice (even though I must admit that it was a pretty self-indulgent writing 🤭).
Word count: 470
Finding a good gift for Buck is always tricky. The Major is very down-to-earth and will not accept anything that could have been used for something more useful particularely if it could have been use by someone else. That's why Charles's first idea was to make toothpicks for his Major. Everyone had seen the Major with a toothpick in his mouth at least once, playing with the thin piece of wood, and seeing him in the stalag without one of his famous toothpicks between his teeth was somehow out of place.
He thought about using scraps from his other projects to make the little sticks. He had never done this before, and it would have been a great challenge to make them thin enough to be useful without them being too fragile and breaking at the first touch.
That was before he saw his major and Alex interacting. Watching them discuss airplanes, maneuvers, and the various things they had built during their youth gave him another idea.
He could build a B-17 for Buck. Moreover, if the other man objected to receiving something that could have been used for other purposes, Charles could always tell him it was to have a model for the class he teaches.
Buck's love of aircraft was well known, as were his impossible maneuvers, it would be nice to have a plane figurine to explain them better to the new commers. Charles always found it amusing that people thought Bucky is the crazier of the two, when it is obvious that they are both as crazy as each other. They are definitely a good match for each other.
Sculpting a B-17 is much more enjoyable than Charles could have imagined. It's nice to look back on memories of the plane without thinking about those last moments before the crash, to instead remember his first moments in the cockpit of a flying fortress, to remember this unique sensation of freedom. The wind beneath the wings of the fuselage, the horizon stretching as far as the eye can see, the feeling of finally touching the clouds—it's truly magical.
Sculpting this figurine is really therapeutic for him, allowing him to remember his first flights before all this happened, reminding him why he's fighting. And he wouldn't change a thing if he had to do it all over again. Although maybe he would wear thicker clothes under his outfit because it's really cold at hundreds of feet above the ground.
He can't say he would change much, because this hell has given him his crew, his brothers, his family. He loves them so much and is so grateful for them. They are always there for him, taking care of him, he wouldn't have made it through without them at his side.
Gale Cleven portrait by @artisttess [Art, Gale "Buck" Cleven]
@mota-fanart-gallery rec: Artisttess makes beautiful art with gorgeous colours and depth, and they have a fun mafia au too. I love coming across their art on my dash. I linked one of their less known pieces because I think it deserves so much more love! But all of their work is amazing.
🌼 What are you most looking forward to in the new year?
You can use the daily theme as inspiration to create new fanwork, or simply enjoy the activity as a chance to reflect on your fandom and personal experiences. The only rule is to be kind to each other.
Today's theme of the day was support, and we were gifted a fic rec by Anon, and a drabble and a real MOTA research rec by @onyxsboxes. You can find them here.
We hope you all enjoyed the treats we shared today. More amazing gifts to come tomorrow!🎄
🎁 Would you like to revisit treats from earlier days? Check out our previous masterposts:
Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4 - Day 5 - Day 6 - Day 7 - Day 8 - Day 9 - Day 10 - Day 11 - Day 12 - Day 13 - Day 14 - Day 15 - Day 16 - Day 17 - Day 18 - Day 19 - Day 20 - Day 21
Artist note: Crank makes Alex's gift. (Drabble 6/7)
Word count: 460
Charles doesn't know Jefferson or Alex, as he asked to be called, very well. The other lieutenant arrived a few weeks ago with Macon and Daniels, and so far, Charles hasn't interacted with them much. But Charles noticed something about Alex. In addition to being a talented artist, Charles has seen some of Alex's drawings, and they seem so real to him, like photographs rather than drawings made with a pencil, Alex also loves airplanes.
It's not uncommon to see Alex and Gale discussing fighter planes like the P-51 Mustang he flew with Macon and Daniels, and sharing their experiences of flighing diferents type of planes. Crank has never seen a P-51 like the one they flew, but from all the stories he has heard from the latest prisoners who arrived, saved by the Tuskegee pilots, Crank is convinced that he can carve one, or at least make it as recognizable as possible.
It's quite soothing to sculpt an airplane. Its long wings seem almost fragile, yet they enable the machine to fly and perform all those aerial maneuvers. The “Red-Tail Angels,” as they are called, are growing more and more famous with each passing day and as new prisoners arrive at the Stalag. They tell stories of how they saved the flying fortresses, how they gained autonomy and are almost able to follow the B-17 throughout their whole mission.
Crank can't help but wonder how things would have turned out if they had been there that day. Would it have made a difference? Would there be more survivors? Would he be in Thorpe Abbots or, better still, back in the United States instead of rotting in the Stalag? His mother always told him not to get lost in “what ifs,” that nothing can change the past and that even though we must not forget it, remaining a prisoner of our memories brings only sadness and despair "Remember the past without forgetting to live in the present". And yet, after so many days spent in the cold of the camp, unsure of what was going to happen, part of him couldn't help doing just that.
Charles has never flown in an aircraft like the Mustang, and he wonders what it would be like. Alone in the sky, no one else in the plane with him, just other planes floating around him. It's strange for Crank to imagine flying without a co-pilot or any crew members behind him. He doesn't think he would have been able to fly over the war zone, without his crew, who always gave him strength and support.
Taking a better look at the figurine in his hands, Charles notes he just needs to add a few details before the small wooden P-51 for Alex is ready.
Boy, You Gotta Love Your Man by Thetrystingtree, @hisbelfastboy [Fic, 21k, Gale "Buck" Cleven/John "Bucky" Egan] “Buck.”
There’s something about the way John says it that doesn’t make Gale’s shoulders hunch to his ears like when he hears it from others. A respite rather than a duty, and Gale turns his head to look at John without a second thought.
“I’m still betting on us.”
Maybe it’s the earnest way John says it, like this is the only truth that matters in the world, maybe it’s the look in John’s eyes, soft and reassuring like it would be ridiculous to think he would not do that for even one second, or maybe it’s the memory of long gone days. Whatever it is, it has Gale’s throat locking up fast enough he chokes wetly on his next inhale.
---
The first few months in the Stalag are rough on Gale.
"Alice from Dallas" and the Infamous Schweinfurt-Regensburg Raid by @b17project [Real MOTA]
@onyxsboxes rec: Looking for information about the B-17? You've come to the right place. Nicolas publishes insightful posts about the B-17 and the men who flew them, “to advance our knowledges of this period, machines and men.” An excellent research work.
