#crivalsduo

So the thing about Technopuffy is that while it is very much me smashing my two favorite characters’ faces together, there is a surprising amount of canon material if you’re looking for it. 

We all know Techno is someone who characters are drawn to when at their lowest. Niki, Ranboo, Tommy, Dream, even people who don’t like Techno will go to him when they’ve struck bottom and have no one else to turn to, like Tubbo accepting his help to look for Michael or Quackity using him at the Red Banquet before resuming their largely-one-sided feud. And the same can very much be said for Puffy! Her son just died in front of her, she killed one of her good friends as a result, she is wracked with grief and anger and regret and a deep sorrow when she first posits the idea that hey, this government/eggpire/people being in control of other people shit sucks. Maybe it’s time to do an anarchy about it.

But what’s interesting with Puffy is that, while she is prompted by hitting what she assumed at the time was her lowest point (she would then proceed to sink lower but shhh don’t worry about that right now), she reached that conclusion all on her own. There was no need for emotional speeches, no screaming matches across the blown out husk of the community center, Techno never once had to rattle her shoulders and beg her to understand him. She collected her own data, made her own observations, and came to the conclusion that “Techno’s probably right about this one actually.”

Not that she fully understood him, at the very start, she was still seeing him through the smoke curtain of server-wide gossip and rumors and his own daunting reputation, but independently of Techno’s efforts, she made the decision to give anarchy a try.

And I think that would be really valuable to Techno!!! As a matter of fact, I know it was, because the next time Puffy logged on he was attempting to recruit her! A touch more subtly than he’d done with Niki (if a giant flaming ANARCHY sign twice the height that she is in her basement can be called “subtle”) but the moment the rumor mill told Techno she was down—not even Puffy, just rumors on the wind—he was interested in having her join. He left the coordinates to his house in her basement.

Let’s repeat that. Techno “paranoid overprepare-er of the century” Blade left the coordinates to his house in Puffy’s basement. She hadn’t said anything!!! She’d told no one she just soliloquized into the empty air and logged off about it, and next thing she knows she’s got Technoblade’s coordinates. Let’s run over the number of people Technoblade has given his coordinates to, yeah? Phil, obviously, Niki, and technically Ranboo if you look at it sideways bc ultimately while Techno suggested bringing Ranboo over, Phil was the one to actually do it. 

And Puffy.

He never told Tommy where he was (and cc!Technoblade even complained that it made no narrative sense for Tommy to know where his house was), he never told Dream about it the guy just figured it out bc he’s a weird little dude, the butcher army only found out bc they raided Phil’s house; Techno told Phil, Niki, Ranboo-sort-of, and Puffy.

That’s fucking huge to me. Techno, who has had his trust fucking tried multiple times at this point, doesn’t even have a face to face conversation with Puffy before he gives her his coords. Doesn’t even need her to explain her motivations to him to be willing to let her join the syndicate. He is instantly, immediately down. 

It’s also worth pointing out that Niki and Puffy are the only people that Technoblade ever actually recruited for the syndicate. Phil was a given, Ranboo was a tagalong for Niki’s initiation, and Connor was likewise just kinda there. Niki and Puffy are the only ones to have received actual invitations. And I just think that’s neat <3 

And that trust is honored!! Puffy goes to his place with no harm on his home or friends, just “leaves a note” that’s a touch too clever for our pig. Techno is smart, his ingenuity has solved equal if not more of his problems than his pvp skills have, but Puffy still kinda buys into the larger-than-life image of him at the start and thinks he’s a bit smarter than he is, leaving a response that’s too subtle for him. 

But her (cursed) mama didn’t raise no quitter, so Puffy recalibrated and immediately started yes-and’ing him with Badboyhalo when he thought he saw Ranboo hiding in the Egg chamber. What are you talking about Bad, you’re crazy, it’s just me and Techno here. Immediate united front. Solidarity in bullying Badboyhalo. And then of course came their mutual care for Ranboo after the poor thing fell into the most obvious trap on the server, and the creation of Team Omelette which I am still inordinately happy about to this day. 

Now, Techno is a giver. We know this. He is someone who gives and gives and gives, and has had that reciprocated and has had that taken advantage of. Puffy? Puffy reciprocates it. He indicates his willingness to help her with the Egg (which was on his own to do list anyway (it’s funny, as much as I love Team Omelette it is very much two ships missing each other in the night. Techno thinks Puffy has not responded to his Giant Flaming ANARCHY Sign in her basement, and is offering an allegiance that is a step removed from the syndicate. Puffy thinks she has responded clearly, and Team Omelette is a step towards genuine connection and collaboration. They both think the other understands this perfectly)) Anyway. He indicates his willingness to help her with the Egg, and she wants to make sure he knows that she appreciates and values what he brings to the table! He repays kindness with kindness and wrongdoing with wrongs, and she meets him on his level. 

So she brings him foxes!!!! She goes on a whole manhunt which made for a very entertaining stream but was a frustrating endeavor in-character, but the man mentioned wanting arctic foxes and by god she’s gonna make sure he knows she appreciates his willingness to help and the trust he has placed in her!!! We all lose our shit about Blitz (for good reason) but very few people talk about the fact that Blitz’s parents were a gift from Puffy. 

And! If you don’t watch Puffy’s streams you don’t know this but!! The area Techno built his house in? Puffy was there first! The little castle turret Techno called an eyesore and probably leftover from Tommy wasn’t Tommy’s at all, Puffy built that thing and, upon revisiting the area, Puffy was the one who tore it down. It feels like such an act of fate, Puffy building her dinky little cobblestone turret in a place that, if gods and schedules were kinder, would’ve eventually become a home for her. She does tear it down though, also calling it ugly, because Technoblade is very particular about his Things and she gets that. She understands and she respects that while Technoblade is extraordinarily generous, that is an act of giving, not of other people taking. His space is his space, his stuff is his stuff, she’s conscientious of it, she’s respectful. 

The ease with which they fell in step with one another still makes me really happy, though it’s that same ease that left their relationship somewhat understated and I think contributes to why I’m the only person that’s as insane about them as I am. Like yeah we got some REALLY COOL Omelette Duo art there at the start but then it kinda dropped off, which like yeah whatever I get but ALSO!! C’mon they’re so cool.

Unfortunately, good writing can’t save bad scheduling. The number of things that needed to happen before Puffy could’ve narratively joined the syndicate and have it make sense kept getting postponed and rescheduled, Techno was in prison for months, Ranboo was a ghost until the end, and obviously real life Techno’s passing put an end to all the character’s storylines. It was a really unfortunate end, but in a kinder world we would’ve absolutely gotten syndicate Puffy eventually, and I can sit here with my little coals and let those keep me warm.

BEYOND the cool narrative stuff they had going on, they’re also just like. A looney tunes ass couple.

Like we all know Technoblade is the Bugs Bunny of the server but let us NOT discount the jokes and japes that Captain Puffy keeps us all in constant supply of. They’re goofsters. They’re sillies. They are the physical embodiment of “excuse me he asked for no pickles.” We’ve got a five foot nothing sheep shouting and shoving and blustering her way around, and a seven foot acolyte of the blood god  running away from social situations because he doesn’t know what to say in them. Captain “I dunno what you’re talking about, Bad, this is perfectly normal to me” Puffy and Techno “Skeppy I need you to run this maze that I definitely made and get the horses at the end. For no reason.” Blade. Captain Puffy has a weird cursed mom (I’m hoping for a Sherbet Above the Sea of Fog situation), Techno’s got his “where I come from… we only have one life” thing. Puffy is quick to yes-and anyone she’s talking to, and Techno loves a good joke.

Switching back slightly more serious: they DO have strengths the other lacks. As much fun as it is to depict Puffy being, like, competent in a fight or whatever bc pirate themes… she’s really not. My girl is not a pvp’er I accept that I have made my peace with it. You know what she is? An extravert. Techno, meanwhile, struggles to be On around other people, but packs a phucking wallop when the situation calls for it. He’s got stability and more or less his shit sorted out when Puffy is desperate and hurting and at her lowest, and can provide that safety and companionship like he has done for so many others. Puffy has drive and her thumb on the pulse in the way that Techno, in his isolation and his house in the middle of nowhere, is often left floundering for clues. 

And they both care. So much!!!! Puffy has a whole arc of determining that her attachments are why she’s in so much pain and trying to disengage with them, and can’t. She tries to stop caring as a self-defense mechanism and she can’t. She can’t stop caring, she can’t stop being attached, she cares so much about everything all the time and she cannot uncurl her fists. And Techno! Doesn’t want to! He knows he’s attached, he knows he cares deeply and truly about everything that’s ever touched him, and he doesn’t want to distance himself. He wants to punch the thing that would make those attachments hurt!  They! Are! People! Who! Care!!!!!!!!!!

And yes they have their differences and no I don’t think it’d be a relationship without any friction at all but!!! They’re!!! SO captivating to me, and I love them, and I think about them a lot, and I think they just work.

Also hot tiny sheep woman x hot giant pig man yes yes mm yes please tasty tasty I am nothing but mortal and when two hot people with likeable personalities exist near each other I want them to kiss.