SCP-248

SCP-248 SCP-248 is a booklet of stickers that say 110%. Each also has a small imprint identifying The Factory. Put one on certain objects and it can make them operate beyond their normal capabilities, including objects that are missing parts they should absolutely need in order to work. The Foundation finds the booklet after a child puts a sticker on a partially dismantled tractor. Most of the engine is gone. Parts of the frame are missing. It's badly rusted. Turn the key anyway and the tractor runs as though it's in excellent condition, even reaching a speed slightly higher than expected for that model. It still needs gasoline. When the researchers remove the fuel tank, the whole thing stops functioning. So the sticker can apparently disregard the absence of much of the engine while continuing to require the fuel system. That gives them a working effect without a consistent mechanical explanation they can apply to everything else. The computer experiment is probably where a lot of people would immediately start thinking about uses for it. A sticker on the motherboard increases storage from 250 gigabytes to 275. The RAM improves, and the heat sink removes more heat. The wiring behaves even more strangely, with conductivity beyond what the researchers expect from the best modern superconductors. Remove the battery, though, and it stops working just as the tractor did without its tank. Dr. Mize becomes interested in what that conductivity could mean for energy production and power distribution. Those possibilities are proposals in the file, not completed breakthroughs. They haven't built a proven, safe power grid out of these things. Applying a sticker to a person produces no observed improvement after an hour. Removing it is another matter. The adhesive has bonded so strongly to the skin that taking the sticker off removes a chunk of flesh with it. Chemical analysis still identifies the adhesive as ordinary tape resin. The same problem appears on the tractor, where multiple tools fail to remove its sticker. Then they try a second sticker on the tractor to see whether the effect stacks. Its measured speed doubles from the first test, reaching eighty-four kilometers an hour. But the vehicle begins deteriorating rapidly. After thirty-six minutes of operation with both stickers, it has essentially rusted apart. Once the original material has changed enough, the stickers fall free. Their adhesive is gone, and they can no longer stick to anything. That leaves the researchers with a destroyed tractor and evidence that doubling up can create an expensive and dangerous trade-off, rather than a practical way to keep increasing performance. I like the amount of useful detail in the tests here. You get actual limitations: a power source still matters, living tissue doesn't receive the same benefit, removing a sticker is difficult, and stacking them destroys the one machine they try it on. There's plenty of potential, but also plenty of evidence against putting them on everything immediately. Mize still wants to find The Factory and investigate further. Given how the experiments have gone, I can understand the interest while also understanding why somebody else needs to be involved in deciding how far he takes it. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-248