Mae

So here’s John Juniper and Phoenix both dancing with death

due to the limitations of a VR game, there are a couple of quirks that happen when the Agent smokes a cigar. firstly, there’s no difference in animation whether the cigar is in your mouth or not. the smoke remains consistent either way. second, no smoke comes from your mouth when you pull the cigar out. thirdly, the cigars go out REALLY FAST. in some levels, if you want to keep a lit cigar in your mouth the whole time, you’re going to have to relight it two or three times.

something interesting i discovered on a recent playthrough of 3 is that during Cold Shoulder, the Agent has clouds coming out of their mouth bc it’s super cold, right? there’s also a cigar in that level which can be lit if you’re smart. when you have the cigar in your mouth, the clouds continue as normal.

these are all Normal Video Game things that happen because It’s A Video Game. however… taking things completely at face value, i present all this as evidence that Agent Phoenix does not actually smoke. they literally just hold lit cigars in between their teeth because they think it makes them look cool.