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.
claude