The "reading a command" activity is not the only point at which we can interact with snippets, as it happens; it is merely the most useful. "The player's command" can be consulted at other points, however, as in this example of your somewhat deaf (or distracted, or simply cussed) Aunt:
{*}"Complimentary Peanuts"
Instead of asking Aunt Martha to try doing something:
This is superior to checking "the player's command" because we do not want ASK MARTHA ABOUT FRENCH FRIES to trigger the "Martha" keyword, only the "french fries" keywords.
{**}The Empyrean Shuttle Bay is a room. "From here you have an excellent view of the colony world, which looks... well, it looks discouragingly orange. But terraforming is in progress."
Aunt Martha is a woman in the Empyrean Shuttle Bay. A gleaming shuttle and a stack of rations are in the Shuttle Bay. The shuttle is a vehicle. "Your shuttle awaits."
Table of Aunt Martha's Commentary
topic commentary
"shuttle" "'Shuttles! I hate shuttles,' Aunt Martha grumbles. 'Give me an airplane! AIRPLANE.'"
"airplane/airport" "'Those were the days,' Aunt Martha agrees, plainly reliving the days when she wore a blue-and-white uniform and passed out packets of salted pretzels."
"rations" "'Do you think there are any peanuts in there?' she asks in a wistful tone."
Test me with "martha, get in the shuttle / martha, for pity's sake, do you see an airplane around here? / martha, pass me the rations".
This means that Martha will respond to keywords regardless of the setting in which they occur. For instance:
>martha, get in the shuttle
"Shuttles! I hate shuttles," Aunt Martha grumbles. "Give me an airplane! AIRPLANE."
This is not the stuff of which Loebner-winning chatbots are made, admittedly, but it is occasionally a useful alternative to stricter modes of command-parsing.