Technoblade doesn't know how to care about people.
This is just a fact. He forgot a long time ago how to care, or maybe he never learned.
It's not that he was heartless. Far from it, actually. But when you're alone for a long time and the only people you even talk to are the same ones who either betray you, try to kill you, or both- well, that messes with your head a little bit.
He didn't have many friends. He had Phil, of course, but Phil was one person. And frankly, for a long time, that's all Techno thought he needed. They looked after each other. It was better than being completely alone, even if there was still a hole in his heart that Phil could never completely fill himself.
And then Ranboo came along and, well, that changed things. Because Ranboo was just so nice and suddenly Techno was forced to face the fact that he liked people and he liked having friends and he really hated being alone even if he didn't have the emotional capacity to be around a lot of people for very long.
Which is a problem.
Because Techno doesn't know how to care about people.
So when Ranboo came along with his sincere kindness that Techno pretended to just brush off, Techno really tried to be gruff and aloof and uncaring, because he didn't know how else to act. How was he supposed to act? He sure as hell didn't know.
The strangest thing is that Ranboo never seemed to mind. Which begs the question: If Ranboo liked him despite him being a literal violent criminal who blew up Ranboo's old home, does that mean that other people could want to be friends with him too? Could he have friends he could rely on, who could help him and and be there for him and trust him?
Technoblade was a logical person. He knew that if it could happen once, it was possible. Thus, he had an idea.
He started the Syndicate.
Now, a lot of people liked to joke that it was just another government, but that wasn't true. There was no leader, no system, no one ordering people around. It was simply a group of people who helped each other out, who trusted each other and became self-reliant, which is what anarchy is based on.
To Techno-while he would never admit this out loud-it felt like a family.
And, for the first time in maybe forever, he might've been just a little bit happy.
This was a really self-indulgent chapter where I was basically just venting. I had a lot of fun writing it, though!