this post was submitted on 05 Feb 2026
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Obviously all theoretical. Unless...

The following assumes that they're tiny humanoids with wings and no magic spells/powers.

What would you say the size range is for our tiny winged beings? I often imagine incredibly small, like AA battery size. Then my brain makes like a runaway train, thinking about things like logistics and plausibility (I know they're fictional magic beings but that's the runaway train part).

Once I get into that mode, I start imagining them bigger, to an extent. As big as a futbol, usually. All the various children's stories have them anywhere from palm-sized to as small as bugs.

I guess for imagery sake, imagine you had a roommate that was one, so you have to take their size into account for things like cooking and cleaning. What chores would be exclusive to each person based on size? Would they be able to lift/carry human-size objects?

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[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I'm answering this as a science question. If that wasn't the point, my apologies.

Aerodynamics fix the wing to body ratio of a creature pretty tightly. If you want a wasp-like ratio, it's going to be a wasp-sized creature. To reach ball-sized, they're going to need to have eagle-size wings folded up around them, not cute little things on their back.

I guess for imagery sake, imagine you had a roommate that was one, so you have to take their size into account for things like cooking and cleaning.

An entire human-size dwelling would be very expensive taste for a pixie, even with a roommate. I think they could only be in charge of cleaning an area realistic for their size, and pretty much nothing else in the way of typical unskilled labour.

If something breaks they'd make a hell of a repair person, though, since they could reach all kinds of things inside a machine, and they'd be able to process food in ways that are just too picky for humans to bother with. The Inuit have a delicacy called mouse food, where lemmings collect the tiny edible bits of otherwise unpalatable arctic plants, and then they loot the burrows until there's enough for a person.

Maybe an entire colony of pixies would be a more realistic co-occupant. I'd really worry about one of them peeping at me, though, since a tiny creature can hide anywhere. Safety would also be a concern; there'd have to be ground rules about what surfaces are to be ordinarily kept clear of anything or anyone that could be crushed, and regarding which containers I can handle and how.

Would they be able to lift/carry human-size objects?

No, they'd be able to lift around as much as a similar-sized flying animal. So, a little bit of pollen, a drop of fluid, maybe a small insect in a tiny cage.