Sergeant Komarov was awakened by a strange silence, a kind unheard of since the day he was drafted and sent to the frontlines. When he looked around, he found himself alone in a snowy field. His unit was gone. The trenches and encampments, all vanished. No gunfire sounded in the distance, no rumble of artillery.

Slowly he stood up and looked around. The terrain looked the same. No one stole him in the night and dumped somewhere, it was still the same hilly plain with copses of trees that was the contested ground between the Russian army and the Ukrainian defenders for months now. No one disarmed him, either: his rifle and body armor were still with him.

He walked through the snow, looking for any signs of human presence, and he soon found some. There was a village in the horizon. It was the same village that was abandoned by its inhabitants and shelled into ruins months ago, except it was entirely intact. The chimneys were smoking. People were walking around with no fear. The village looked like there wasn't any war.

Komarov approached the village cautiously, not knowing if there are any soldiers residing there, Russian or Ukrainian, but as he came closer he saw no signs of military presence. Finally he met a villager, casually strolling along the snowy road.

"Hello!" Komarov said. "I may sound stupid, but I need to know: is this territory held by Russians or Ukrainians?"

"Are you daft, soldier?", the villager responded. "This is Soviet territory. This is the Lenin's Way Collective Farm!"

I was awoken by a sort of shifting in the cosmos. I opened my eyes irritably, sitting up and pulling my hair back to its normal state. What was going on now? I opened my eye- not physical, but of a different kind- to gaze out upon the world.

...Oh.

Not this again.

...Here's the thing. Genies like myself are a pretty tight knit community. And, based on all of this, some human had a twisted of view of reality that they made... actual reality. Great. I wonder which of my friends got roped into this particular wish. More importantly did anyone else realize? Probably not. Just up to little old me, then.

This wasn't the first time it happened, goodness no. I could only count... less than 10 instances, and while I'm hardly the oldest genie I've been around for a while. Actually, I had been freed a long time ago. I just hung around because I don't know. It amused me?

The thing about freed genies is that, while they have PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER, it's not quite "wish-granting" power. The good news is that freed genies still have their lamps. Yeah, turns out that the whole "rub a lamp for three wishes" works even if the genie hasn't been stuck in it for the last dozen centuries. Most freed genies just toss their lamps into the nearest volcano or what have you, but I held onto mine. Call me sentimental, but my penchant for hanging onto things was going to be useful today.

I grabbed my lamp and quick-stepped to the nearest neighborhood. Genies and freed genies can't grant wishes for each other, fun fact, so I'd need a human. Specifically, a human I could trick. Actually... How was I going to do this? Hmm...

A solution occurred to me a few minutes later, and I grinned. Perfect. Quick shapeshift into the form of a young girl, which I realized I had to change to a young boy after a second. Irritating, but I hadn't studied enough about 1930s culture to know enough about... gender roles for young people. A young girl might have attracted too much attention, I wasn't sure, so a boy it was.

Anyways. I ran out of the woods, towards a small group of boys playing in the street. I waved to them as I came closer.

"Hey, guys! Look at what I found!" They looked towards me, momentarily confused, but their faces lit up when they saw my lamp.

"Woah, cool! What is it?" One asked.

"Doesn't it look like those genie lamp things from the stories?" Another commented.

"Did you try rubbing it?" A third said excitedly.

"Not yet. Why don't you try?" I replied, holding it out by the handle to them. Man, I've hardly seen people rubbing my lamp that quickly before. I felt a familiar rush of power, though I was careful to keep it contained.

"...Did nothing happen?"

"Maybe the genie is invisible?" I said, shrugging.

"Maybe. Ooh, wait. But... what to wish for?"

"I might have an idea!" I responded. "Why not wish for it to be yesterday? That way we get a whole new day to play before school!"

"Good idea! Okay... genie, wherever you are! I wish that it were yesterday!" I grinned slightly.

"Your wish is my command," I said quietly. The world shifted and changed, and I was back in my bed. But the world seemed... normal, and a quick examination confirmed it. I grinned, getting out of bed and stretching. Perfect. Now... to contact my friends and let them know a weirdo was going to try coming for a wish later today.

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