Corporeal Forces: 3 Strength: 5 Agility: 7

Ethereal Forces: 3 Intelligence: 5 Precision: 7

Celestial Forces: 2 Will: 7* Perception: 4

*Bought up

Vessel: large Caucasian man/3, Charisma +1

Skills: Artistry/5 (Writing), Dodge/3, Emote/4, Fighting/3, Knowledge/4 (intelligence analysis), Languages (many), Large Weapons (Sabre/3, Lance/4), Lying/6 (mastery), Move Silently/3, Ranged Weapons (Pistol/3, rifle/3), Riding/6 (mastery), Savoir-Faire/2, Seduction/6 (mastery), Tactics/2

Songs: Motion (Celestial/6), Shields (All/6, Virtuoso)

Attunements: Blessed (It hurts to even write that), Scabbard

Disadvantages: Cowardly/2, Lustful/2 (he used to have both of these at higher levels, plus Slothful, but the personal attention of two Archangels is an amazing motivational tool)

That man has the luck of the Devil himself, it seems - which is not to say that Flashman has good luck. It's just that there's no neutral switch to it: either things are going very well, or else very badly. Harry hasn't yet worked out which condition applies here.

On the one hand, he managed to skip Hell on, frankly, a technicality (his Destiny was achieved on his own, but every single one of the seventy-five occasions where his Fate was met had been inadvertently disrupted by celestial interference). This is a good thing, obviously: Harry has heard about what goes on down there. It might be good for a bit of fun if you were a demon, yourself, but for humans ... well, no need to dwell on the unpleasant, right?

That's the good news. The bad news is that the first thing - the very first thing - that Harry Flashman got to see when he walked past a shocked Radueriel was a nastily grinning short, skinny guy with black wings, idly leaning on the largest sword the ... blessed soul ... had ever seen. Said skinny guy politely informed Flashman that he was being volunteered. Right now.

Well, nothing new there - but Harry wasn't used to having a boss who could read minds. His next few decades were precisely as painful as anything can actually get in Heaven. Laurence is the sort who believes that there's nothing like good, healthy exercise to promote virtue: Flashman would disagree, but he learned very quickly that the Archangel of the Sword has a whim of steel - and a willingness to assign 500 mile runs at the first hint of whining. The worst part was, of course, that the Archangel just kept smiling the whole time. Flashman has very good instincts about nastiness - he should, considering his earthly habits - and he sourly suspects that Laurence has always wanted to really put a sinner through his paces. The ... blessed soul ... must have seemed like a gift from God Himself.

Anyway, after half a century of this, Harry was ready to work for anyone else - except Michael. Seraphim terrify him: those angels can detect lies.

Guess what?

Actually, being assigned to War wasn't - all that bad. Michael is a sneaky bastard (Harry considers this a compliment, by the way), and he doesn't respond to the least little infraction by assigning ten thousand pushups. In fact, Flashman gets to spend most of his time sitting at a desk reading reports. He has a certain talent for intelligence work, and if he had his way, the ... blessed soul ... would do nothing else for the rest of eternity.

Of course, that's not going to happen anytime soon. Every time that there's a particularly tricky problem down on earth that calls out for a poltroon with a keen sense of self-preservation, Michael sends for Flashman. The Archangel of War well knows that Harry is a coward and lecher (although no longer a bully - Laurence has methods for dealing with that little character flaw): he just doesn't care. Indeed, in some cases both qualities are useful: if nothing else, Hell would never expect that anyone who acts like Harry does could ever be a Saint. He's perfectly safe.

Harry's heard this before. It was never true when he was alive - and it isn't true now. Then again, what choice does he have? The other side's worse - and at least this one leaves him alone most of the time. There's even beer and women...

Now, for those of you who haven't read George MacDonald Fraser (shame on you, by the way), Harry Flashman is one of those people that you can't help but like ... from very, very far away. He's a coward, a poltroon, a lecher of astonishing ability and zeal, and in life a bully and sluggard ... and those are his good points. He's also an excellent and charismatic storyteller, with a keen eye for human foibles (seeing as he's indulged in most of them, he ought to). While Flashman's riding abilities aren't as important to modern campaigns as they were during his lifetime, his talents at linguistics and mendacity will probably never go out of style. Michael uses him for 'forlorn hope' missions: Harry, as stated above, has the devil's own luck. It's all a matter of making sure that his survival depends on the mission being successful...

Cruel? Probably, but really, now: this man should not be in Heaven. He hasn't earned it.

Yet.