The temple looked pretty old. Alice was no historian, but there was some kind if inscription all along the walls in a language she hadn't ever seen before. Sections of debris looked like they might have been some sort of picture chiseled in the rock, but time had worn away much of the image. The place itself seemed big enough to house a detachment of Marines, maybe two. If they cleaned up the place it could easily serve as a base of operations, though it was pretty far from the ocean. So that might be an issue.
Alice crouched beside a collapsed section of wall, running her fingers across the engravings in the stone. Rumor has it the world government ate crap like this up. Ancient cities, civilizations, weapons. If it was around before they were, they liked to own it. Knowledge is power and what not.
Before she could continue to ruminate on that thought, a familiar voice demanded all of her attention.
Soft and gentle, like a feather. Easily lost in the wind. Even within the halls of this temple, there was scarcely even an echo of it. Still, Lin's voice managed to reach Alice's ears just fine given her Haki enhanced perception. The blonde, cool and calm as ever came to her own feet and dusted herself off. Turning her head toward her one-time lover. She gave the Kuja a lazy grin, somewhat unsurprised to see her here. The aura was familiar enough by now, certainly. Cool and mellow, with an odd warmness to it. The two made their way toward each other and exchanged a dainty peck that was surely supposed to be a kiss of some kind. Alice would certainly teach the other Kuja how to properly greet a lover later.
"Cupcake~...", Alice would say in her typical playful fashion, her response to Lin's statement of surprise would be a sly smirk followed by a incredulous gesture at the temple that surrounded them, " Island is pretty flat. Not too many jungles around here, definitely none this big, and definitely none with a temple like this.". Linnea obviously had seen her coming, the archer's Haki was leagues ahead of her own. Still, there'd been another Aura here. So either Lin had company, or they were about to. She wouldn't bring it up, because Lin would probably know anyway.
And know she did, moving out of Alice's line of vision to reveal a young redhead. If Alice didn't know any better, she'd have guessed the girl, named Mea as Lin would inform her, was her daughter. But as far as Alice knew, the girl had been chaste until their encounter so this meant the little lass was just a stranger to them both. More so Alice, clearly.
The redhead in question kept much of her head hidden under a hood, and her face was stuffed behind the pages of a book. Either she was shy or upset, Lin hardly seemed the type to meet out in a jungle just for a book club. Lin would inform her they were about to train. Mea herself spoke up shortly after, making her way towards the two women. She introduced herself as a doctor and asked if Alice knew anything about Devil Fruit. Alice was about to speak, but the girl continued, apparently the question had been rhetorical... Or it wasnt Alice's "turn" to talk yet.
Alice wasn't the best with kids, she was fairly childish at times herself and personalities had a tendency to clash. Once the girl was done asking about the horny horny no mi or whatever, Alice would lay a hand on her hip, shifting her weight to that leg, "Don't know too much about Devil Fruit I'm afraid, but I know enough about Haki to know all its gonna take is a swift, Haki infused Roundhouse to the brain box to put a quick stop to any nasty powers they've got. Always aim for the head, kid. Causing a nice, good concussion solves most of my problems.", the Marine would say bluntly and proudly. It was a bit of a lie, given she herself had a Paramecia-type Devil Fruit, but the ankle biter didn't need to know that.
The little girl would continue to interrogate Alice, causing the voluptuous blonde to roll her eyes and give Lin a narrow stare, silently asking if the girl was always like this. "You always make it a habit of asking people's affiliations before offering your own? Also, fun fact, "classified" is pretty marine-ish talk there, little girl. You should know, this island has no Navy base. That means no back-up if you start making enemies before you start making friends. Just a friendly heads up, ya know? One well-trained martial artist to one combat inept doctor. ", Alice's threat was hardly veiled and when Mea extended her hand, Alice kept hers on her hips, refusing the handshake.
She cooked her head lazily toward Lin for a sec, a bored expression on her face. " Didn't happen to catch any hints of treasure about have you? These old things usually have shiny old golden statues and what not." Alice actually didn't know if any of that was true, just an educated assumption. She wasnt exactlyimplying the truth, but karate island wasn't a good place to run around calling yourself a Marine. Treasure hunter seemed far more likely in this neck of the proverbial woods, given the islands in the south blue being fairly well known for being untouched by modern societies.