Blowing smoke rings was cool - or just the exhale as it was, that haze, the streams of toxicity escaping to nowhere. Maybe Richie also liked polluting their environment a little too - one small act of rebellion, about how they were stuck here not knowing jack shit about why and just being toyed with for the sake of...something. It was better than breaking into a prison to steal weapons and then getting locked in said prison with the stolen weapons (what the fuck?) while goat demons attacked the rest of the assholes stuck here.
"Does everything else work the same?" he asked, before taking another drag. "Like...do you eat? Maybe next time we can just grab a hot cocoa." That way Dolores wouldn't make those 'this tastes like the bottom of my shoe' type of faces.