PLAYER
» Journal: theliar
» Birthdate/Age: 08/1984
» Characters Played: Kate Beckett (themuse & Myka Bering (thedetails
» Re-App Status: This is a re-app. I dropped Vala back in January and I'd like to app her with some of her Atia memories.
CHARACTER FACTS
» Name: Vala Mal Doran
» Canon: Stargate SG-1
» Reference: Vala at Wikipedia
» Canon Point: The end of the final episode, "Unending"
» Gender: Female
» Age: A lady NEVER tells her age (Actually, there's no canon age given, but Vala appears to be in her late 30s/early 40s. Since she's technically human and, as illustrated in the episode "Unending" she ages at a human pace, this should be reflective of her true age.)
CHARACTER INTERPRETATION
» Appearance: Vala is tall and athletic, with dark, thick brown hair and blue eyes. Her style evolves from somewhat over the top to a bit more reserved during her time in the series. Also, Vala basically has the Earth equivalent to an English accent; her father doesn't, however, and all we are told about the origin of her accent is that she "inherited it from [her] mother."
» Suitability: N/A
» Orientation: Vala is heterosexual but perhaps with some bisexual leanings. Arguably the most sexually-charged character in SG-1 canon, Vala's sexual remarks and innuendos are usually aimed at the males of the species, although we do see her flirt with a woman on one occasion. She is (technically) married to a man, and although it is somewhat a marriage of convenience, she is still affectionate towards him throughout the show. Vala also remarks she's been married multiple times in the past (however, marriages to men are merely implied and we're not even sure if this is a true statement.). Most notably, there is Vala's "amorous interest" in Daniel Jackson, an interest which has been apparent since their initial meeting, and she often makes sexual references towards him. The two eventually pair off in the episode "Unending" (although, later on, time is reversed and they have no memory of their relationship.). All of Vala's previous relationships that we are made privy to were with men, although it's also heavily implied that she has had a number of relationships throughout her life and most were for financial or social gain. Considering some of her introduced lovers in the past are not ones that she is actively attracted to, I would say it isn't a complete stretch to assume that she's had affairs with women at least for personal gain, if not due to attraction.
» Personality:

A walking contradiction, Vala comes into the Stargate series as an already confused and complex character. Having spent most of her life conning people out of things she couldn't outright steal, she is also promiscuous, ambitious and a force to be reckoned with.

When first introduced, Vala sweeps in as a conniving con woman, hell bent on stealing one of the Stargate Program's ships, although she finds herself somewhat distracted by one delicious Daniel Jackson. Although Vala fails in her master plan and escapes, her strange draw to Daniel and her experience with him causes her to return to Stargate Command not once but twice in order to aid them in their plight against the Ori. Although returning and helping them is somewhat a contradiction of her outward nature, it illustrates a deeper level to Vala that often even her canonmates do not give her the credit of having.

Often selfish, self-serving and driven to a fault, Vala's initial return to Stargate Command was not exactly taken lightly by the team, as she clearly was using them to further her own thirst for treasure. It proved to be, however, a significant experience for Vala in that she ended up risking her life to try and hold back the Ori forces, and due to that sacrifice is trapped among the Ori for a significant length of time. When she learns of yet another planned onslaught on Earth, she reaches out again to the Stargate team to warn them; although part of that is no doubt her initial connection to the team, it must also be noted that Vala, simply, has nowhere else to go.

Having lived her entire life cheating, stealing, and basically being ethically handicapped, Vala does still function by a thief's code. Although she'll go out of her way to lie and rob if it means furthering her own personal goals, she doesn't do it at the expense of the lives of others; and when lives are loss due to her selfishness, she experiences guilt. This implies a certain amount of respect and responsibility for her actions. The most accurate way to describe Vala would be to say that she, emotionally, began her run on Stargate as being extremely immature; she is unable to grasp the long term ramifications of her choices, and this results in acting impulsively, even if she often has good intentions for her teammates. Once she settles into life at the SGC, she becomes almost desperate to impress them, studying in order to pass her psychology exam and going above on beyond to prove her loyalty. Although she freely admits that she has, in the past, lied, cheated, and stole and chances are may do it again, she also maintains that her time at Stargate has caused her to risk her life for the benefit of others, something she has never has never done before. Her need to be accepted by her new family is child-like in its innocence, and it causes a certain vulnerability to appear in Vala that was not apparent during her initial episodes.

Although little is known about Vala's background, and much of it remains under scrutiny due to her habit of compulsive lying, there are three solid factors of family that play into her life and firmly influence her personality and her function within the team. First is her father; a con man who was absent for most of Vala's youth and only reappears when he can use his daughter for his own wants and needs. The amount of emotional damage Jacek inflicted upon his daughter is obvious by her rejection of him, and although she attempts to accept him in her life again, she finally comes to understand that her father has become a type of person she can't find room for in her new life. However, she still secretly keeps a small box of the trinkets he would bring back for her as a child after his various travels, illustrating the small part of Vala that has been and will always be a sad little girl who wants nothing more than to have a daddy.

The other factor is her daughter, Adria; although Adria was, actually, the result of a "immaculate conception" caused by the Ori in order to create a new leader for their cause, Vala is torn over her feelings for her daughter. On the one hand, she wants to destroy her and thus destroy any hope for the Ori uprising; on the other hand, Adria is still very much her daughter, and there is a part of Vala that will continually reach out to her in hopes of appealing to Adria's human side. Although in front of her teammates Vala remains stoic and cold towards her daughter, there is a deeper part that is presented whenever Vala has the opportunity to talk to Adria, as Vala always attempts to plead with her daughter. There is no doubt a large part of Vala that wishes she could turn Adria from the Ori, although these attempts are never successful. Vala both loves and fears her child; as she is visibly heartbroken when a failed plan to overpower Adria results in the Stargate Program attempting to euthanize the young woman, she is also clearly terrified when she finds out Adria's death has allowed her to ascend and become what is now a much more powerful threat to the fate of the human race.

The third is her relationship with SG-1 and other members of Stargate Command who have become her family over time. Although her initial and early relationship with Daniel has an antagonistic quality to it, they begin to bond, and as Vala opens up more to him, they develop something more akin to a friendship. Vala doesn't exactly hide her attraction to Daniel, although it is often referred to in a joking manner. It is not until their experience in the final episode that results in them being stuck on a ship together for the rest of their lives that we discover this attraction is legitimate, as Vala and Daniel enter into a relationship that lasts for their remainder of the time on the ship. Although Vala perhaps is closest to Daniel, she also has significant other relationships within the team; Mitchell, she views very much as a brother, and often goes to him when she is in emotional peril. Sam always seems amused by her antics, and it is clear that Vala missed her when Sam ends up trapped in a parallel reality. Teal'c, also a misplaced alien, shared a special bond with Vala, and is the only one who takes to her right away as a member of the team. Landry is someone Vala looks to as a father figure, and it is proved down the line that he has believed in her ability to better herself from the beginning; a significance that is not lost on Vala, although she often seems to buck his advice. In the end, through Daniel's support and that of the rest of the team, Vala finds herself living for something greater than herself.

There have been many other (mostly negative) factors that have played into the formation of Vala's personality. Among them are her time spent being controlled by a Goa'uld system lord named Qetesh, whereupon she was forced to "watch" herself enslave a torture an entire planet (even after ridding herself of the alien, Vala continued the charade of ruling the planet, although with a much less strict hand), as well as her execution by the Ori (which she came back from, but was no doubt traumatic), and her memory loss resulting from her being kidnapped by a Goa'uld system lord and tortured for information that Qetesh had (she eventually regained her memories and, with them, acquired an official spot on the SG1 team). Often, Vala mentions these events freely and without much emotional attachment, although it is unrealistic to think that she does not associate any emotion with them. She handles these subjects with the same flippancy she does her sexuality; for Vala, her emotions are things that should be guarded carefully and are only ever exposed to those whom she trusts deeply.

Often, she uses humor to guard these emotions. Vala is, actually, incredibly funny, be it intentionally or not, but there is no denying that for all of her struggles and pain she grasps an unprecedented joy over life. Sex is often a joke for her, and most of her fallacies regarding her history or those of others are intended to be mirthful rather than malicious. It is possible, in fact, that most of her outright lies are intended to be funny, and she tries to clumsily bandage the pain through her life by covering it up with humor rather than truth. That is not saying, however, she cannot find the time to be serious; and towards Daniel, she even has been open and honest about her insecurities and fears towards her relationship with him and her place in the world. Vala's honesty is something that must be earned by any who receive it, and while she is loudmouthed and opinionated, not all who meet her get a chance to meet the true individual she keeps hidden away.

In the long run, the most defining part of Vala's personality is her restless soul that wishes to have a place to belong, and she feels she may have found that with SG1. However, due to her past experiences, she still had wounds that will take a while to heal, but for the credit of her team, she has become a stronger person and has finally settled into a world that she hesitantly has become to call home.

» Re-App Changes: Vala originally came to Amat in Novemeber 2010 and remained for a little over three years. Since her canon point was at the end of the series, Vala had already matured a long way from who she was in "Prometheus Unbound." She had already found a place with the Stargate Command family, and had begun to turn her life around by shying away from her illegal activities and turning more towards saving the universe.

Her changes while on Atia continued to compound her education on being an honest human being. She arrived to find Mitchell already on the island and was quickly joined by both Daniel Jackson and Carolyn Lam, which allowed her a safety net as she began to branch out on the island. Since members of Stargate Command were present, Vala was still held accountable for her choices while also being able to discover the kind of life she wanted to lead on Atia. She befriended KC and started working for the bowling alley; she and KC had a lot in common, and the woman became something of a mentor and mother figure for the misguided alien. KC taught her a lot about responsibility and also how to cut loose, and once KC left, Vala found herself in charge of the bowling alley.

Managing the bowling alley became part of Vala's identity on the island. Never before had she had a job that was not only based in a specific place but that she found herself the boss and ringleader. It taught her a new level of responsibility; while Vala was still very capable of cons (such as entering into bets at the bowling alley to earn additional revenue and fixing the arcade machine so that no one could beat Ianto's high score), she was also in charge of an above the line business and kept as close as she could to keeping things on the up and up.

More so, Vala was offered two distinct, life changing relationships during her time on the island; a relationship with Adria, her daughter; and Rose, her mentee and, eventually, adopted daughter. Because of the circumstances of Adria's birth, Vala was never afforded the opportunity to be a mother to Adria. Although Adria is grown on the island, circumstances forced them into honesty with each other, and while things began as tense, Vala and Adria soon found some common ground and began to explore an almost-normal mother/daughter relationship. In the end, Vala found herself proud of Adria's progress as a mortal, and left the island viewing her daughter as someone she was happy to have a relationship with.

Rose began working for Vala at the bowling alley, and they bonded immediately. With similar backgrounds and traumas, the two connected on a deeper level than just their silly personalities. Vala became Rose's confidant and Vala viewed her as a second daughter. Having developed these two special relationships, Vala began to learn what it was like to have two people she viewed as children look up to her; and she also began to realize how much she could honestly enjoy motherhood without the threat of the Ori hovering above her.

Vala also developed many other deep friendships; Carolyn Lam, who she has minimal screen contact with, became her best friend on the island and many of her antics were centered around making Carolyn uncomfortable. Steve Rogers was another character who Vala became close to, as they were roommates for a long time and she never slept with him, preferring rather to have a normal friendship with a male she wasn't sexually involved with. Most notably, she ended up married to Daniel before she left, and her marriage to him completely solidified her comfort in settling down and having a life far away from her normal cons, lies and thievery. Daniel was her best friend and her soul mate, and she loved him enough to want to spend the rest of her time on the island dedicated to him and their life together.

That said, Vala is not a completely different person. She still is a compulsive liar; although her lies are more meant to amuse than swindle now a days. She is a kleptomaniac, and while she does her best to control those impulses, she is not always capable of doing so. She was banned from the Marketplace during her previous stay for stealing and imprisoned for an attempt to blow up the temple; both behaviors that were in direct result of losing Daniel for the first time. She also attempted to separate herself from SG-1 at the time, although those bridges were eventually mended and Vala returned to her friends. Those wounds were eventually healed by her relationship with Adria and Rose as well as Daniel's return, and Vala is unlikely to lash out in such a manner again. She now knows she has a strong family backing her, and although many are gone from the island, she had learned to have more faith in the people who come into her life and stay to help her.

For the sake of play-ability, Vala will retain all of her memories except for those of Daniel. Her memories of him (both incarnations) and their marriage will remain fuzzy or not return at all. Her relationships with other characters, especially those in the game, will return to her more clearly.

SAMPLES

» First Person Sample Choice: Prompt Three

[See Vala. See Vala curled up on the counter in the bowling ally. Unlike usual, she is wearing her green military fatigues, combat boots and a black tank top. She may have spent the last twenty minutes setting up her device so it had a full body - and rather flattering - shot of her during the transmission.]

I suppose you could say I'm feeling a bit nostalgic today. Besides Earth, I never really had anything that is considered a home. I spent a fair amount of time transient, moving from planet to planet and struggling, desperately, to make it by. Some days I had no food, no water, not even a roof over my head. Although I had freedom through the vast opportunity of Stargate travel, I found myself in a prison created by the barren lifestyle that had been thrust upon me. There was a never a place in my life that I felt so as home as I did on Earth, and had the opportunity to enjoy the small niceties that such a lush planet provided.

[With a pause, Vala presses her lips together and considers.]

What I mean to say is... Is there anywhere on this island I can find blue jello?

» Third Person Sample Choice: Prompt Three

At the test drive.

The jack o' lantern grinned horrifically at Daniel as he balanced it in once hand, forcing his key into the lock and stumbling into the door. It had actually been Teal'c creation; Mitchell had decided that swapping pumpkins after they carved them was some kind of brilliant bonding ritual. And had Daniel known, he probably would have spent less time meticulously carving his own.

At least, he thought, Sam had ended up with his, so at least it was someone who could appreciate it.

He deposited the lopsided pumpkin on the table along with his keys and his wallet. The evening had been long, but none-the-less enjoyable. He had spent it talking shop, bantering with Vala, and laughing while Teal'c tried to explain Halloween to her while they drank beer and watched horror movies. If nothing else, Mitchell had seemed pleased by the outcome. And Daniel was just ready to go to sleep.

Stumbling into his room, he didn't bother to turn on the light. Retrieving a pair of sweatpants and a shirt from his dresser, he changed quickly and yawned dramatically before pawing his way to his bed in the dark.

Lifting the cover, he slipped underneath, stretching his legs. ( And then his feet made contact with a warm, solid lump that really should not have been there. )

<lj-cut text="vala/daniel verse><b>circa-2007</b> <a href=http://sixwordstories.livejournal.com/47141854.html><b>Foes (Part 1)</b></a> <i>What should be a typical mission to save a planet from the Ori results in Vala being kidnapped but the most unlikely of sources.</i> <a href=http://ispeakancient.livejournal.com/3897.html><b>Foes (Part 2)</b></a> <i>After days of tracking down the ship that took her, Daniel and Vala find themselves in a fight for their lives to get home.</i> <b>circa-2011</b> <a href=http://ispeakancient.livejournal.com/4160.html><b>The More Things Change</b></a> <i>It's been three years since the Ori were defeated, and the Stargate program is still going strong. However, when Sam's promotion ceremony is interrupted by a distressful plea from the Nox, SG-1 must do everything they can to save their oldest allies from destruction.</i></lj-cut>