The first thing you might notice is that Val is tall - 180cm - nearly 185 in the high combat boots that are part of the custom light armor, a sort of alumnium-silver with red accents, almost ceremonial looking.  As you get closer, you can see the dark red hair - no, it's not brown, and no it's not dye - and her blue eyes.  Conventionally attractive, thin smile; but genuine.  With the armor she's wearing, is a utility belt, a DL-18 in a cross-draw holster, a boot knife and a thin metal rod, about 40-50cm, strapped to her right thigh.  While the armor isn't skin-tight, it's pretty close to the body, and clearly Val is in great shape, especially given her age (which would be terribly rude to ask, but is definitely north of 30).

And depending on the situation, and your history with Val, you might know her under a mission callsign like Signos or Quiraah or Alpha-1, or you might know her under a more personal nickname, like Val aka Val Solis aka The Baroness aka Zik aka Zikky aka Kriya aka Solis-1 aka SolarOne, or if you’re a Royal Herald on Essex, you might say Baroness Valsolis of House Zikriya.  But that’s long, so probably something shorter.