Zebra Chip's Links
As a carpenter, Ryuuda was the first client to instantly accept Chip with no prejudice against him as a fishman, a first impression that stuck with him. This led to Chip eagerly accepting his work against the wishes of his tutor, who was strictly against working with pirates. Upon being invited to join Ryuuda's crew, he happily accepted, glad for the chance to regain some semblance of his old life.
The two get along well, fast becoming drinking buddies and getting into drunken mishaps together. However, on ocassion he finds Ryuuda's personality grating and doesn't care for his careless treatment of the ship. He believes his friend needs to take his role as Captain a bit more seriously.
Chip finds artistic inspiration in his captain's crude and childish design ideas and is always keen to bring them to life to the best of his ability. This includes the more ill-advised concepts, which the carpenter will only come to admit the poorness of after the fact.
Ryuuda thinks of Chip as a talented shipwright and a good friend. Due to the fishman's enthusiasm and understanding of his childish scribbles (which he himself thinks of as sublime blueprints), there is no carpenter he trusts more than him with care of his ship, prompting him to recruit Chip into his crew.
The two generally get along well and Ryuuda loves sharing drinks and having fun with his pal. He is oblivious to how pushy he can be towards Chip however, believing him to be on board with all of his ideas and being frustrated when they actually disagree.
Chip did not think much of Prince at first, thinking the boy a passing fascination of Ryuuda's (a pet perhaps?) and dismissive of his potential as a pirate, due to coming from prim and proper human nobility. However, he was not actively aggressive towards him, at most rolling his eyes and shooing the boy off when he got in his way, much like those he encountered in his time as a carpenter.
Despite Prince trying to make small talk often, Chip was well aware of the distance between them, believing the boy's hesitation to stem from the typical prejudices. Over time however, as much as it continued to irritate him somewhat, he acknowledged that Prince was at least making an effort to overcome those ideas. Alongside this he gradually accepted the work he was putting into piracy as well, though he still believes him to be too soft-hearted to last.
Although this closed the distance between them, the two are still starkly different men, Chip being an experienced, downtrodden and crass man whereas Prince is an optimistic and polite greenhorn, so they struggle to find common interest and grow closer. As Prince has loosened up on their travels, he's at least grown a bit fonder of the boy, and they can comfortably enjoy drinks together, with a drunken Chip more prone to teasing Prince as a 'little boy'.
With high society's strong prejudices against Fishmen, Prince found himself regrettably cautious around Chip initially, as the first one he'd ever encountered in person. As a kind-hearted boy, he was careful not to assume the things he'd been raised to believe by bad people were true, but was hesitant regardless simply due to not having anything else to go off of.
Chip's own upbringing and personality being so radically different did not make opening up to him any easier, Prince finding his efforts to befriend him stifled by the stark contrast of their experiences. This weighed heavily on his heart and shame plagued his mind, worrying that he was unable to overcome the prejudices of his upbringing and that he was an unfair and cruel person. Eventually however, Chip himself reassured him that his efforts had not gone unnoticed, bringing him a sense of relief.
Going forward, Prince continues to be respectful to Chip, perhaps overly so, despite their culture gap. Despite being unnerved by the depravity of some of the Fishman's anecdotes, he nonetheless admires the adventurous aspects and that he lives the way he wants. He is also greatly impressed with his carpentry skills and is eager to give him a hand if he ever needs it.
Chip generally tries to ignore Fonia, despite her prejudiced behaviour against him, seeing her as little more than a narrow-minded child. He has suggested throwing her overboard a few times, though out of empathy as a fellow Devil Fruit user, he would be unlikely to follow through with this.
He has come to genuinely regret his encouragement of initially taking her hostage, something he has vocalised to her in a sort of apology, but kept to himself that the regret stems from the fact the event led to her continuing to be around him.
Fonia, due to her upbringing, is vocally displeased by Chip's presence amongst the crew, as he is a lowly fishman. She looks down on him with prejudice and is frequently spurting out demeaning microaggressions against him and his kind.
Although she talks mad shit about how superior she is, she is of course also terrified by the slightest aggression he offers in return, fleeing and crying to the nearest person about how violent and horrible he is. Chip being as patient as he is, this tends to only happen when she insults his carpentry.
(BigCat AU)
Chip initially gets along well with Nero, enjoying her company as a drinking buddy and reminsicing on more violent and gruesome anecdotes about their history of piracy than he can enjoy with the rest of his light-hearted crew.
Unbeknownst to him however, her catlike nature has a certain affect on his Devil Fruit hybrid transformation. She causes his animal instincts to overtake his sense and lose control, leading to a relationship between the pair that Chip only has very fuzzy recollection of after returning to his normal self. Nero chooses to continue with this situationship without really letting him know for some time.
Eventually however, Chip does learn the truth. Despite his initial sense of shame, his friendship with Nero prevails and he embraces their circumstances, becoming closer to her and eventually abandoning the Burning Red Pirates together alongside her to pursue their own goals as a couple.
Chip tries to be on friendly terms with Tattle, but finds himself frustrated by her fearful attitude towards him. Always acting as though he's about to attack her out of nowhere makes him mad enough to want to do it!
In his hybrid form, once his animal instincts are heightened, he does find his eye drifting towards her, and sure his stomach audibly rumbles when he does, but she's overreacting!
Tattle is instinctively terrified of Chip and is entirely unsure why at first. Upon learning about his Devil Fruit abilities however, it became abundantly clear that this is a deeply-buried animal survival instinct lurking within her... clear to everyone but her that is, since she believes herself to be a Giant, and cats don't eat giants!