Let a question go after it has stepped aside three times (V-654)

A side query suspends the parked question rather than dropping it. Nothing bounded that. No attempt is spent, so MaxAttempts never applies, and noteSuspended restarts the 90s clock, so the TTL cannot arrive while he keeps talking. Measured 2026-08-07: one unfilled time slot rode the tail of six consecutive unrelated replies.

PendingQuestion.Suspends counts the step-asides, MaxSuspends is 3, and past it she lets the request go with the same clarifyDropped line every other drop uses. The count is of consecutive step-asides and resets the moment he answers.

Also splits the re-ask off the answer into its own sentence. The comma splice buried the question in the tail of a reply about something else.

internal/dialogue/clarify.go

@@ -41,8 +41,33 @@ type PendingQuestion struct {
 	Attempts int // questions already asked
 	// MaxAttempts caps Attempts. 0 ⇒ DefaultMaxAttempts.
 	MaxAttempts int
+	// Suspends counts how many times this question has stepped aside for
+	// something he asked instead, and come back on the end of the answer. It is
+	// deliberately NOT an attempt: a side query is not a failed answer, and
+	// charging it a retry is the V-554 shape. See CanResume for why it is
+	// counted at all.
+	Suspends int
 }
 
+// MaxSuspends — how many times one question may step aside and come back before
+// she lets the request go (V-654).
+//
+// It exists because suspension had no bound of any kind. A side query spends no
+// attempt, so MaxAttempts never applies to it, and it restarts the 90s clock, so
+// the TTL never arrives either. Measured on 2026-08-07: one unfilled time slot
+// rode the end of six consecutive unrelated replies and stopped only when a
+// seventh turn happened to read as a failed answer.
+//
+// Three, matching DefaultMaxAttempts, and for the same reason. Once he has
+// asked for three other things without touching the question, the likely truth
+// is that he has moved on and has not said so.
+const MaxSuspends = 3
+
+// CanResume reports whether this question may step aside once more. False ⇒ the
+// caller lets the request go and says so; it must never simply stop resuming,
+// because a question dropped in silence reads as one that was answered.
+func (q *PendingQuestion) CanResume() bool { return q.Suspends < MaxSuspends }
+
 // Action reads the parked question as the typed action it is assembling
 // (pending.go). Derived rather than stored: the question's fields stay the one
 // copy of the truth, so a caller that fills them the old way cannot end up with