I think those fics hit on something a lot of official rival-to-friend arcs miss—the sheer ridiculousness of it all. They weren't locked in some epic, fated battle. Schlatt's this greedy, corporate-grifter type and Techno's an anarchist with a potato farm. The rivalry comes from completely opposing worldviews crashing together in the chaos of the SMP. Yet the friendship that sometimes gets written feels earned because it's built on shared, weird competence. Like, they're the only two who truly understand the game they're playing, even if they're playing for opposite teams. That mutual respect, buried under layers of sarcasm and betrayal, is what makes the dynamic so fun to read.
You'll find stories where they're running competing casinos, or Techno's trying to overthrow Schlatt's government while secretly admiring his sheer audacity. The tension isn't just 'will they fight?' It's 'will this fragile, begrudging alliance finally snap, or will they accidentally become the most powerful, dysfunctional duo on the server?' The best ones don't soften either character; Schlatt stays a backstabbing capitalist, and Techno stays a violently principled revolutionary, but they find a strange, pragmatic middle ground. That's more interesting to me than a simple enemies-to-lovers or pure friendship turn.