Reminds me of how dream said that if he had to swap characters it would be c!techno because of how similar they and their goals were
yeah!
like, at the end of the day, they both wanted the same thing: peace and their friends to be safe and happy.
genuinely, the biggest difference was the amount of support they each got and the fact that c!techno was a lot more stable. he's been through a lot, he genuinely has some deep trauma. it's just techno has a much stronger sense of self. he pushes back against the dehumanization, where dream accepts it.
so dream spirals. he spirals hard and he keeps spiraling because no one is helping him, least of all himself. where techno begins to spiral, does try isolate himself, but he's much more certain of who he is and he has at least one steadfast friend at the start of that spiral. he's able to walk himself back. where. dream doesn't. he can't.
and i do think techno saw that a bit, he offers dream a place but man. dream is so deep in his fear and his stress, he can't stop to accept that place. he dances on the edge of maybe. he builds a house. but he can't step away because he's terrified and the spiral plan is all he has now. he's got to see it through and maybe he'll be able to fix everything! so he destroys the house.