Interesting post overall.. Chris may have friends that may go to the cinema with him, but I don't think that he has or had friends that would invite him to their spaces or stick-up for him when he really really needs it (Like if he needed a loan or something). To summarize: He doesn't have anything more than somewhat superficial friends (Not necessarily pity friends, but not Help Him Hide a Corpse friends either), and I don't think he even knows that those friends even exist for other people, let alone find them.
Yes, they invite him to their spaces sometimes. But yeah, they probably won't loan him money or help him hide a corpse.
I think Chris is kinda aware that friendships can get more intimate. Though I bet he doesn't know how intimate (or not) his current relationships are. I think he's slightly aware that he can't just barge into their houses whenever they want, like Kramer. (I use that reference because if Chris read this post, he'd chuckle at it "hehe hehehe Kramer is funnay", and then his eyes would gloss over with autistic contentment at a random tv reference. Then he'll fart.)
Basically: I think Chris' thoughts are extremely "fuzzy". That's the feeling I've gotten from listening to him ramble over the years. He's got inklings, but nothing concrete.
Now if I had to answer the bolded question, I'd say he rarely brings those things up IRL, him being with friends enjoying some nerdy thing is a temporary panacea for his life worries, he doesn't need imaginary friends & CWCville if he is with real friends, he needs them when it's Monday afternoon and all his friends are at work, leaving him all alone with his toys, his dying mother & bills to pay.
Now I think he DOES bring up his RL problems, for example when that girl on Facebook reminded him about her aunt (?) that can help him find a job, which of course he ranted at instead.. That's a conversation that's almost impossible to even happen unless he told her about the Financhu Crisis. I imagine he does tell them about the bullies & trolls as well.
Yeah, that's a good point. Chris doesn't really get into the hardcore crazy shit when he's happy (with decent finances and friends to hang out with). It's specifically when his life is in the toilet that he starts getting nervous and praying to the alter of anime girls to save him from life.
I'm probably splitting hairs here but I would consider those kinds of people to be more acquaintances than friends. Someone you hang out with once in a while and share interests with (regardless of whether those interests are drinking beer, watching sports, playing games, etc.) are acquaintances; friends are the people you hide corpses for.
See, (I don't mean to second guess you, but...) do you really believe that to be the case? Like, that's so bizarre to me. I think most people, if they honestly took stock of how they've used the word their whole lives, they'd agree there's some blurriness to what they'd call a friend.
There are shades of friends. Good friends. Better friends. Worse friends. Estranged friends. Friends who you don't see very often. Friends you see all the time.
I think people are selectively defining "friend" strictly just in this case.
Or, I suppose life experiences will affect this a lot. I think if you still live where you went to high school, I guess you have had a pretty fixed set of friends your whole life. Whereas, if you've moved around a bit, you might lose contact with someone for a bit. Doesn't mean they immediately lose their friend card. You might get back together again, and it's just like old times. Or maybe you drifted apart and you lost that spark. It could go either way.
I don't know, I've never in my life heard the term "friend" defined so strictly, except in this specific case with Chris. I find it strange.
