---
schema: 1
type: term
title: situations
description: >-
  In this channel's material, **situations** refers to the open-ended
  circumstances users create when interacting with **Tolan** — moments the team
  handles through improvisational storytelling rather than a scripted narrative,
  co-authoring the character and world with users so the character responds
  appropriately across whatever situations arise
  [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@100]
  [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@197]
  [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@133].
canonical: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/situations-b4a848fd5c3e'
markdown: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/situations-b4a848fd5c3e.md'
llms: null
parent: 'https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt'
channel: everyinc
updated: '2026-10-23T22:12:35.346Z'
language: null
children: []
---


# situations

Canonical: https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/explore/term/situations-b4a848fd5c3e

Parent: [Channel index](https://liquidgold.cc/channel/everyinc/llms.txt)

## Definition

In this channel's material, **situations** refers to the open-ended circumstances users create when interacting with **Tolan** — moments the team handles through improvisational storytelling rather than a scripted narrative, co-authoring the character and world with users so the character responds appropriately across whatever situations arise [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@100] [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@197] [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@133].

In this channel's captured material, **situations** shows up in the context of exploring how **Tolan** — Portola's embodied AI alien companion — handles open-ended interaction. Rather than scripting a fixed narrative, the team builds the character through **storytelling by improvisation**, which means the app has to respond to whatever situations users actually create with it, co-authoring character and world together with them [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@100] [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@197] [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@133].Because the narrative is improvised rather than pre-written, situations are the unit of design the team actually reasons about: the character's taste and behavior are engineered — including via **LLM judges** — so that Tolan responds well across the situations users bring, not just a planned storyline [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@197] [^259b88ca-e6ae-534f-b08e-5773fe2ab869@133].- **Situations** here means the open-ended circumstances users generate in conversation with Tolan, not scripted scenes.- The team explores them through **improvisational storytelling**, co-authoring character and world with users.- Handling diverse situations well is what the engineering of taste and character behavior aims at.