Item Number: SCP-7368
Anomaly Class: Neutralized
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7368-A, SCP-7368-B and SCP-7368-Prime are all classified as neutralized and do not require containment. The precise fate of SCP-7368-A and -B as well as the circumstances under which SCP-7368-Prime occurred (or if it occurred at all) are still debated. The current status of AO-7368-01 is unknown, however, if the device is still intact and/or operatable, it is to be regarded as an item of great importance to the Foundation and must be recovered as soon as possible. Investigation into historical scripts relevant to SCP-7368-A, -B and -Prime is ongoing.
All physical evidence of SCP-7368-A and -B's existence has been confiscated and is stored in Foundation Archival Area-09. SCP-7368-A and -B's cadavers have been incinerated and their remains are currently stored in Archival Area-09 along with all significant documents pertaining to them. The location of Archival Area-09 is classified to all personnel not possessing Level 5 or Level 4/7368 security credentials.
Artist's conception of SCP-7368-Prime.
Description: SCP-7368 collectively refers to two anomalous entities and a presumed event which occurred approximately 4000 years ago, the alleged anomalous nature of which is still debated. The said anomalous entities are designated SCP-7368-A and SCP-7368-B. It is known an attempt was made by SCP-7368-A and -B to alter baseline history in order to interfere with the occurrence of the said event, which is hereby to be referred to as SCP-7368-Prime. The degree to which this attempt was successful is still subject of intense speculation among Foundation researchers.
The deceased and partially decomposed bodies of SCP-7368-A and SCP-7368-B were recovered from an abandoned village in Mazandran, Iran in February 2009. Both entities were discovered resting atop a pile of hay by local civilians in an unused barn and were promptly reported to the authorities. Genetic sequencing showed that SCP-7368-A and -B's genome turned a 24,93823% match to domestic sheep (Ovis aries) and 75,06177% match to modern humans (Homo sapiens). SCP-7368-A was determined to be a male while SCP-7368-B was determined to be a female. A full sweep of the discovery site uncovered numerous other artefacts indicating SCP-7368-A and -B's relevance with SCP-7368-Prime and the construction of AO-7368-01.
SCP-7368-Prime was an event which is often depicted in religious scripts as involving two main figures: the prophets Abraham and Isaac. This event is popularly known as "the Binding of Isaac" and is depicted in Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. This script depicts the course of events as Abraham binding his first son, Isaac, to sacrifice him to God per his own command. However, Abraham is interrupted before he can kill Isaac and is instructed to ritually slaughter a ram in the name of God instead. It is unknown if this event really occurred as it is depicted or if it occurred at all.
Most details regarding SCP-7368-A and SCP-7368-B's lives are unknown. What is known is that SCP-7368-A and -B shared a romantic partnership, harbored extreme misanthropic prejudice caused by past traumatic experiences with humans, and dedicated their lifetimes to constructing a machine capable of travelling through time in order to revert the events of SCP-7368-Prime. By achieving this, SCP-7368-A and -B hoped to prevent the annual ritualistic sacrifice of domestic sheep from ever becoming a common tradition among Abrahamic communities. The product of SCP-7368-A and -B's joint efforts was AO-7368-01, a device alleged to be capable of travelling backwards in time. SCP-7368-A and -B are believed to have utilized AO-7368-01 for this purpose at least once, although the exact results of this operation are not known. Many Foundation historians and scientists have come forward with potential explanations, none of which have been proved to be factual.
AO-7368-01 is currently deemed to be lost and the artefact's ultimate fate remains ambigous.
One of the first theories to be put forward regarding SCP-7368, the Scranton Hypothesis was developed by Dr. Robert Scranton in 2010 and posits the idea that SCP-7368-A and -B succeeded in preventing SCP-7368-Prime. At that time, opponents claimed that this would result in a logical paradox wherein SCP-7368-A and -B would not have any reasons to go back in time to prevent SCP-7368-Prime, thus meaning that SCP-7368-Prime was allowed to occur.
Confusing isn't it? If A and B do not have a reason to go back in time to prevent an event which, from their perspective, never occurred; how is it possible that SCP-7368-Prime was reverted by A and B?
Has anyone in this room ever heard of the grandfather paradox before? Yes? Good. Does anyone know what would happen if a person went back in time and killed their grandfather? You need not to think, as quantum physics alreadys has your answer.
Subatomic particles regularly multiple different things in parallel. It's called quantum superposition. It's how Schrödinger's cat can stay alive and dead at the same time. So, if the universe were to exist in a superposition of two states, it could be possible that SCP-7368-Prime happened, but also did not at the same time. In this case, the entire universe is a box and the cat is Isaac. Isaac was never bound by his father because SCP-7368-A and -B were there to prevent it. But at the same time, Isaac WAS bound by his father because A and B never had a reason to care about going back in time to prevent it. So, from a scientific perspective, there is no paradox here and a couple of sheep-human hybrids going to the past to prevent Abraham from sacrificing Isaac falls entirely within the purview of conventional logic.
Dr. Scranton's proposition was highly controversial, however, no counter-arguments were developed until Dr. Muhammad al-Taqi proposed the Taqi Hypothesis in 2011.
Developed in 2011, the Taqi Hypothesis suggests that SCP-7368-A and -B could never succeed in preventing SCP-7368-Prime, as this would constitute a logical impossibility.
With all due respect to Dr. Scranton's intelligence, I think what we have here could be explained with the Novikov Self-Consistency Principle. SCP-7368-A and -B were doomed to fail, as it is not possible to change an event that has already happened. In fact, I would go as far to say that A and B were the cause of SCP-7368-Prime. They created exactly what they were trying to destroy, and it makes way more sense.
IF Abraham really received a message from the Abrahamic God to not kill Isaac… well, I belive an omnipotent entity would be able to prevent a couple of sheep people from interfering with its plans. SCP-7368-A and -B's entire plan was depending on God not being real. They must've been convinced this is the case, if they are smart enough to build a time machine, they would be smart enough to not screw with God's plan.
BUT, if A and B successfully built AO-7368-01 and used it to go back in time, it is very likely they would unintentionally set the wheels of history in motion. Abraham prepares to bind and sacrifice Isaac. Suddenly, a couple of sheep hybrids appear in front of him and try to get him to stop. For whatever reason, they do not kill Abraham. They could not. No matter how hard they tried, they could not kill him. Because we know that's not what happened. It's in the past, unless A and B had access to a machine which could retroactively alter reality, changing the past would be impossible. Abraham takes this as some kind of divine intervention. Years later, this event appears on textbooks. Cut to the modern day, A and B realize what they have done and are horrified. They have unintentionally become the reason millions of their kind get slaughtered and eaten every year. They cannot carry this weight and together, they commit suicide in an abandoned barn.
I did not pull out that last part from my behind by the way. Here, I have some papers (shuffling sounds) that show the autopsy results on A and B. Suicide. Opium overdose. As for what happened to AO-7368-01… I'd say they scrapped it and hid their work so that no one could ever follow their footsteps. Our inspection teams found pieces of metal scraps on the floor of the discovery site. The center of the site had also sufferred from fire damage, almost as if there was some kind of explosion that was deliberately set off. I belive this further supports my claim.
The Taqi Hypothesis achieved popularity and became the most accepted hypothesis regarding SCP-7368 in the following years. This caused interest in AO-7368-01's current state and location to diminish, as the artefact was considered to have been destroyed.
Devised in 2020 by Dr. Cindy Helsman, the Helsman Hypothesis posits that SCP-7368-A and -B succeeded in preventing SCP-7368-Prime, however, they did so in a seperate universe. According to Dr. Helsman, travelling backwards in time would be a scientific impossibility and since there is no evidence of neither SCP-7368-A nor -B possessing access to anomalous technology, it would be more likely that A and B constructed a device which employed non-anomalous technology to "jump" into an identical universe where SCP-7368-Prime was yet to occur, interrupted the timeline and returned to the baseline universe.
I just, I just think constructing a machine which can actually travel back in time is… I mean… it is an idea beyond any scientific achievement. Unless A and B used some advanced anomalous technology, I don't think they could… no… time moves forward. It moves forward only. You can't interfere with the past, because the past is what made the current you who had the idea of interfering with it. I won't go to detail on that, others already have.
Now, think about this, these guys obviously must have been geniuses. We know they built a time machine. We have proof. Leave alone all those files we found in the barn, we have those stone drawings they excavated in Palestine and all those Ottoman era paintings they found in Istanbul. Or do we? I saw the stone art, it just depicted two lambs and two guys, one of whom had a knife. That could've been anything. And all those paintings… they just… they could have been different interpretations of the Binding of Isaac. The fact that the sheep looked just remotely anthropomorphic does not prove anything.
But we know they built a machine. We found some of its remains didn't we? Not only that, we have journal excerpts on where they collected all those material from and excerpts showing they had an extensive understanding of physics, their breadth of knowledge could match that of an experienced Harvard professor's. So they built a machine, not one which could revert time but one which could hop into a universe which had incepted 4000 years later than ours. They did not change the future, they prevented Abraham from binding his son in that universe, but ours just stayed the same. Or maybe they prevented Abraham from ever having a son he could sacrifice. Like al-Taqi said, preventing Abraham from binding Isaac to an altar could cause Abraham to think this was some kind of divine intervention, which is similar to how the story goes in the depiction we know of. They probably intended to prevent Isaac from ever being born, yeah, that would make more sense. Like a minus second trimester abortion. Right.
Like I was saying; they did that, came back to baseline universe, realized they failed, committed suicide. Simple. Or at least that's what I think happened. And regarding AO-7368-01… I think it may still be out there. Or even more interesting, I think it may not be an anomalous invention like we all assumed it is. We could be able to build something like that with the technology we have. If only we had our hands on the research notes. It's a real shame we stopped looking for it if you ask me.
The Helsman Hypothesis helped increase interest in AO-7368-01's current wherabouts and also inspired several projects aiming to construct a machine identical to AO-7368-01. To this day, the Helsman Hypothesis serves as the driving idea behind many projects undertaken by Foundation, GOC, CI and ORIA personnel. Any such ongoing projects are closely monitored by Foundation espionage teams to ensure none of the Foundation's rival organizations gain access to time travelling technology.
First suggested by Dr. Thaddeus Xyank in 2458 and formalized by Dr. Bruce Wilson in 2023, the Xyank-Wilson Hypothesis posits that SCP-7368-A and -B failed in preventing SCP-7368-Prime due to an error in AO-7368-01's making. This error resulted in the creation of a dead timeline where SCP-7368-A and -B were subsequently banished to. This hypothesis was never formalized by Dr. Xyank, it only received significant attention after Dr. Wilson wrote a paper on it in the early 2000s.
The following audio log was found inside a tape recovered from the person of an SCP-1780-2 instance which manifested on 04/03/1995. Its contents have been regarded as relevant to the development of the Xyank-Wilson Hypothesis and the preservation of the continuity of the timeline. The said instance self-terminated shortly following capture, and has not yet been identified.
Why do I seem upset? Why wouldn't I be upset? I wasn't the one who wanted me to be here. Fucking Bruce.
Listen, I don't think it would be ethical to name this hypothesis after me. It is a legitimate possibility, yes, but I never intended to suggest it as a hypothesis. It was merely something I had been considering. But Bruce Wilson from two hundred years ago somehow got their hands on a speech I would give in the future and now I have to give this seminar in order to prevent a paradox.
If you want to know what I think of 7368, I'm more of a Scranton Hypothesis guy. If you know me and my work, you could probably guess that. But there really is something I was surprised no one has considered before, but NOT because I believe in it myself, and that is the possibility of 7368-A and -B fucking things up and sending themselves to a dead timeline.
As someone who has done it before, let me tell you, time travel is a tricky thing. Like Dr. Helsman said, the only way we know how to travel backwards in time is anomalous technology. But even in using anomalies to travel in time, you have to be very specific. Does anyone here know when the Binding of Isaac really occurred? No? Makes sense. It occurred some four thousand years ago, of course it would be a mindfuck to try to find the specific date if its occurrence. And time travel does not accept "some four thousand years ago" as a valid input. Unless you design the machine to send you to a completely random point between 1800 and 2000 B.C., the chances of you getting the see the Binding of Isaac by Abraham would be slim. The Bible says the guy lived like 175 years, highly doubtful you'd have the lifespan to see him reaching 90 and having his first son. So I mean, A and B could have constructed the machine but failed to get certain things right. Like how you have to put in the time, date, that stuff. Also account for leap year. Never forget leap year.
The result of this would be A and B being sent to a date that does not exist, phasing themselves off the universe's linear timeline. This timeline would be unbound by any logical constant, trapping A and B inside itself. It would be escapable, yes, but from A and B's perspective, this would take an immense number of years to achieve. The worst part is, during this time they would lose all senses, never being able to feel anything and never being able to die. Even if they did manage to get out, what remained of their cognition would be very little of what it originally was and that remaining little part would be broken beyond repair. So of course, the first things they would do would be to kill themselves. I don't think they would use opium to overdose on it though. I think it would be something like both of them screaming incoherently, utterly traumatized, repeatedly banging their heads against a wall until they die of hemorrhage. Like I said, I don't believe this is true. It's just a thought.
This is it? The seminar's over? Finally. I got work to do, if this Bruce Wilson guy wasn't already dead I would love to bash in their brain right now.
Although not a particularly popular hypothesis, the Xyank-Wilson hypothesis continues to be considered by many Foundation scientists. Even though it is deemed to be scientifically possible, most Foundation physicists agree that the chances of SCP-7368-A and -B's bodies being discovered would be slim to none if they were ever to end up in a logically unbound timeline.
Addendum 7368-01: On 04/06/2023, a team of Foundation operatives headed by Agent Cervantes seized a handwritten letter from a room in a motel which was patronized by the agents in Tehran, Iran. The letter was subsequently brought to the attention of Site-██'s administrative division who linked it to SCP-7368-A and -B. The item was measured to be in excess of 20 years old. It has since been contained within Archival Area-09 and an English transcript translated from Persian has been attached below.
My Dear Donya,
The day of reckoning is near. I have found the last missing piece. It is a matter of mere two or three decades until we complete the machine. I know that may seem like a long time and we have been working hard for so long, but remember that it is all worth it to avenge our kind whose hands were turned to feet, whose superior inventions and intelligence were taken away and whose flesh and blood were wasted on delusions of humans for thousands of years. To call these creatures "the living" is an insult to every other life form on this planet. Wisdom is wasted on the old, youth is wasted on the young, confidence is wasted on idiots and life is wasted on the living. We can finally change this.
While in Istanbul, I have made some rather hopeful discoveries. While I was tomb raiding, I discovered several very remarkable works of art that, strange coincidence, appear to depict two sheep standing on their hind legs towering over who I could only assume to be Abraham, that demented fool, as he cowers in fear. I believe this clearly shows our success is inevitable. We are inevitable.
I have heard terrifying news on the madness happening back in Iran. I hope this letter will reach you without incident. Things have been hard in here as well. I think the MGK is onto me. The horns are a deadly giveaway. It is very hard to conceal them. We should really consider sawing them off. I am going to try to leave the country without getting shot. It would be a shame to die in the hands of a human after all of the perilous creatures I have encountered on our journey. If we do not meet in a month, it means I am dead and you should immediately travel to Istanbul to retrieve the missing piece before the humans get their hands on it. If that becomes the case, you must continue the research without me. Once it's done, take the notes and do whatever you can to get them to our friends in the west. Their civilization's been through things similar to ours, they would appreciate it.
Whatever happens to me, I want you to know that there is no fool on this Earth who could go back with a time machine to prevent me from falling in love with you. You are who I value the most, whether in this timeline or another.
Yours truly,
Ervin
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