Chris and socialization

Chris, surrounded by family and friends.

Chris is somewhat capable of socializing, in contrast to the epic failure of his Love Quest. Being a nerd and, as of 2014, a member of the LGBT community, Chris has common interests with his friends. Awkwardness arises when Chris attempts to take part in conversations which exceed his limited interests, as his broken social filter can lead to him saying inappropriate things or attempting to steer the topic to cartoons, video games, or the SLGBTQ.

In real life

Chris likes to bring in his dolls to play with at his Pokemon club, even though he has friends there.

Chris has some friends which he knows from an all-ages Pokemon club in Charlottesville. He has them added on his Facebook friends list and they occasionally comment on his updates.

One, a woman in her mid-20s named Alexa, repeatedly advised him on how to get a job after seeing him beg for money online. Naturally, Chris failed to follow through on her suggestion, instead choosing to respond by writing up a rant on why he doesn’t want to work. Alexa gave up on attempting to help him after that, though she remained on his friend list.

In between her efforts to help him be something other than a drain on society, Alexa was in his company outside of their common Pokemon group, when she saw The Lego Batman Movie with him.

One of Chris's other friends from the club is a black woman, showing that he's made progress in his views of race.

He requested one of his friends to take a photo of him holding a pose while wearing The Classic and medallion. Chris then used the image to photoshop himself, his parents, and his Electric Hedgehog Pokemon into a group picture, dubbing it a family portrait.

His friends seem to put up with his quirks and there appears to be a pity factor as well, as noted by Emily:

Chris legitimately has friends, even if it's a one sided friendship that's only done out of pity. When I ran into Chris at Omegacon, he was more or less being guarded by a middle aged woman who brings her kids to the Pokemon events at the local game store. She was asking me very specific questions but kept pushing when I would give vague answers.

Chris wasn't shy about asking them to acquire toys for him from places at which he is banned. According to The Man in the Pickle Suit's intel:

Heh, at one point, he had some older, married woman buying him his amiibos for him. I think she was one of the mother's of one of the little kids he plays pokemon with. That cracked me up because it was like Chris was a drug addict, finding someone to smuggle him his fix.

This was confirmed in a Facebook post from August 2016, in which Chris asked two of his friends if they would buy Pokemon cards on his behalf from Gamestop.

Over the Internet

In 2017, he began attempts to socialize on Twitter with voice actresses from some of his favorite shows. His tweets seem to illustrate how he tries to fit into conversations - namely, that he likes to shoehorn in references to cartoons.

DoopieDoOver

Chris commissioned this from Doopie.

Doopie is a voice actress/animator for the YouTube channel Planet Dolan. Chris discovered the channel in August 2016 and took a liking to Doopie. He began frequently tweeting to her in 2017. His social awkwardness in full display, he has tweeted to her on the subjects of poop, his hatred of online dating, and he has tried to hit on her by quoting his "I’m Done Adulting" My Little Pony T-shirt.

In June 2017, Chris began to pledge on Doopie’s Patreon. A Like on her post, which is hidden behind a paywall, implies that Chris is pledging $25 per month to her. He has also paid her $25 for a commission to serve as a profile picture. Chris began throwing that money at her in the midst of the Financhu Crisis, and he quickly resorted to begging people on Facebook for $50, ostensibly to help him and his mother.

Doopie is fully aware of Chris’s online reputation, and sees him as just another customer, as she explained:

I've been following the "Chris chan" saga since the beginning. I know everything that (s)he's done. And yeah, it's pretty shitty, but what other people have done to him/her as been pretty shitty too. I'm also just not the type of person to turn someone away when they're being nothing but kind to me. It may be a fake, it may be a show, but I'm not emotionally invested in this enough to really care. (S)he's paid me to do a commission, and is a patron on my patreon, and as a woman of business, I'm going to treat him/her as every other commissioner and patron.

MLP voice actresses

Chris also enjoys tweeting to VAs from My Little Pony, his favorite being Tara Strong. Ironically, a few years ago, Tara publicly criticized Chris, saying:

I don't think I've seen anyone put an ugly spin on something this outrageously for their own attention. Anyone who follows me know that I'm on a huge anti-bullying platform, and even wrote and produced a song about it. All my "twolling" as we on Twitter call it is completely adorable and makes people smile. Christian's article makes me angry & disappointed. Hope I never meet the guy.

Conventions

Typical chris at a convention

Whenever a convention has been organized and announced if he is really interested, and Barb doesn't get in the way, Chris will never fail to attend it. When Chris attends one of these conventions, Chris generally has a blast due to going outside and socializing with people instead of stalking people on the Internet and sitting around all day playing vidya. Another possible reason for Chris' appeal in conventions is the fact that he is surrounded by people with similar interests, therefore he is able to converse with them.

Anime Mid-Atlantic

Main article: Anime Mid-Atlantic

The first convention Chris has attended.

OmegaCon

Main article: OmegaCon

Chris attended OmegaCon in August 2015, 10 whole years after his visit to Anime Mid-Atlantic. He went alone and dressed up as Vinyl Scratch and attended a cosplaying contest that he lost. He went back the next year and attended all three days from winning a free ticket from the last year.

BronyCon 2017

Main article: BronyCon

As a devoted fan of My Little Pony, Chris attended the convention in August 2017. He wore the Medallion and brought the Christine Doll, as well as a rainbow wig (which was later subbed for a convention-bought pony horn with ears). He met Cathy Weseluck, a voice actress for the show, and had his photo taken with her.