Engineer/Soldier

Pairing
Pairing:	Engineer (Team Fortress 2)/Soldier (Team Fortress 2)
Alternative name(s):	Rocket Science
Gender category:	Slash
Fandom:	Team Fortress 2
Canonical?:	Fanon
Prevalence:	Popular
Archives:	n/a
Other:	n/a
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Engineer/Soldier, known mostly as Helmet Party, is a popular pairing within Team Fortress 2 fandom. The ship is between The Engineer and The Soldier, two of the game's nine playable mercenaries and main characters.

Common Tropes

• Miscommunication: Given how Engineer is smarter than Soldier.
• America: Engineer and Soldier are two of three three American characters in the game, the other being Scout. Fanworks often have them bond over this, especially since Soldier's a major patriot and Engineer's proudly from Texas.

Engineer/Soldier Fandom

KGBigelow was a prominent fanartist for the pairing on TF2chan.

Example/Notable Fanac

Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples.

Fan Communities/Fan Events

• Helmet Party Week 2022, ^{Archived version}, a fanweek held on Tumblr from January 24th to the 30th.

Zines

• Rocket Science!

Fan Animation

• hug xd by horusaku, ^{Archived version} (2024)
• untitled by rockiithium, ^{Archived version} (2023)

Fan Art

• me and the guy I pulled by being a cutie patootie by charlioak, ^{Archived version} (2023)
• Happy gay month, bahala na kayo by estacium, ^{Archived version} (2024)
• 120703-01 by GhostN, ^{Archived version} (2012)
• untitled by bq-9, ^{Archived version} (2023)
• Discretion by KGBigelow, ^{Archived version} (2011)

Fan Blogs

• Fuck Yeah! Helmet Party, ^{Archived version}, a Fuck yeah blog on Tumblr.

Fan Fic

• Fresh Start - Helmet Party by captainbobbin (2018), Explicit, My (first ever) take on a Helmet Party fic! Soldier recalls how he first joined the team and how much Engineer stood out to him. He still hasn't figured out why, however. Slow burner fic, eventual smut.
• Builders League United Official Prom (by Soldier) by Camelot_taurus, HarveyDangerfield (2014), Soldier was appalled when he found out his comrades had never attended prom in their youth. That’s just un-American! (nevermind that the majority of the BLU’s aren’t American to begin with.)
• Almost Heaven by morelmorrow (2019), It's been a long war, and there are consequences that Respawn can't fix. Soldier finds out that he's losing his hearing, but Dell is there with an offer of ASL lessons and somewhere to be during retirement.