Chris and socialization

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.

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.

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.

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.