diff --git a/public/props/bistroTable.png b/public/props/bistroTable.png
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ea852a
Binary files /dev/null and b/public/props/bistroTable.png differ
diff --git a/public/props/manifest.json b/public/props/manifest.json
index d05ce40..0c1f689 100644
--- a/public/props/manifest.json
+++ b/public/props/manifest.json
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
     "arcade",
     "barFridge",
     "barShelf",
+    "bistroTable",
     "boothLamp",
     "boothTable",
     "buttBin",
diff --git a/src/scenes/floor/FloorView.ts b/src/scenes/floor/FloorView.ts
index 643d9cf..ac489b4 100644
--- a/src/scenes/floor/FloorView.ts
+++ b/src/scenes/floor/FloorView.ts
@@ -66,6 +66,7 @@ export class FloorView {
   private readonly scene: Phaser.Scene;
   private readonly map: VenueMap;
   private readonly props: readonly PropDef[];
+  private readonly posts: FloorLayout['posts'];
   private readonly lights: readonly ZoneLight[];
   private readonly palette: FloorLayout['palette'];
 
@@ -95,6 +96,8 @@ export class FloorView {
   private readonly beams: Phaser.GameObjects.Image[] = [];
   private beamAngle = 0;
   private dj: Phaser.GameObjects.Image | null = null;
+  /** Where the resident DJ stands, so the beat bob has something to bob from. */
+  private djBaseY = 0;
   private djBob = 0;
   // Render-only shove displacement by patron id. The sim owns agent.x/agent.y;
   // syncAgents adds this on top so a shoving pair jitters without the crowd
@@ -112,6 +115,7 @@ export class FloorView {
     // the old shape imported one PROPS and one LIGHTS, so every venue in the
     // ladder was the same room with different difficulty numbers on it.
     this.props = layout.props;
+    this.posts = layout.posts;
     this.lights = layout.lights;
     this.palette = layout.palette;
     const worldW = map.width * TILE;
@@ -256,9 +260,17 @@ export class FloorView {
         canvas.refresh();
       }
     }
-    // Pivot on the disco ball (PROPS: 'ball' at 37,22 with a 2x2 footprint).
-    const cx = 38 * TILE;
-    const cy = 23 * TILE;
+    // Pivot on THIS venue's mirror ball, not on Voltage's.
+    //
+    // This was `38 * TILE, 23 * TILE` — hardcoded to Voltage's 'ball' prop at
+    // (37,22). Correct while there was one room; with four it swept two beams
+    // across the empty middle of The Royal's carpet, twenty-five tiles from
+    // that pub's actual dance floor. A venue with no ball gets no beams, which
+    // is right: the beams are the ball's light, and ROOM does not own one.
+    const ball = this.props.find((p) => p.kind === 'discoball');
+    if (!ball) return;
+    const cx = (ball.tx + ball.tw / 2) * TILE;
+    const cy = (ball.ty + ball.th / 2) * TILE;
     for (let i = 0; i < 2; i++) {
       this.beams.push(
         this.scene.add
@@ -316,9 +328,36 @@ export class FloorView {
         canvas.refresh();
       }
     }
-    // Behind the decks (PROPS puts the gear on the booth's west edge at tx 53;
-    // the DJ stands one tile east of it, centred on the mixer row).
-    this.dj = this.scene.add.image(55.5 * TILE, 22.5 * TILE, key).setDepth(D_TILES + 2);
+    // Stand the resident DJ in THIS venue's gear, not in Voltage's booth.
+    //
+    // Was a flat (55.5, 22.5) — Voltage's booth. In The Royal that is the
+    // middle of the bistro, so the club's DJ spent the night among the chicken
+    // parmis. The gear is wherever the layout put it, so the DJ is derived from
+    // it; a venue with no decks at all gets no resident DJ.
+    const gear = this.props.filter(
+      (p) => p.kind === 'deck' || p.kind === 'cdj' || p.kind === 'mixer' || p.kind === 'djPlinth',
+    );
+    if (gear.length === 0) return;
+    let cx = 0;
+    let cy = 0;
+    for (const g of gear) {
+      cx += g.tx + g.tw / 2;
+      cy += g.ty + g.th / 2;
+    }
+    cx /= gear.length;
+    cy /= gear.length;
+    // Step clear of the tile the PLAYER is planted on for a DJ shift, so a
+    // player working the decks is never standing inside the resident DJ.
+    const post = this.posts['decks'];
+    if (post) {
+      const dx = cx - (post.tx + 0.5);
+      const dy = cy - (post.ty + 0.5);
+      const len = Math.hypot(dx, dy) || 1;
+      cx += (dx / len) * 1.5;
+      cy += (dy / len) * 1.5;
+    }
+    this.djBaseY = cy * TILE;
+    this.dj = this.scene.add.image(cx * TILE, this.djBaseY, key).setDepth(D_TILES + 2);
   }
 
   /** Call from the scene's beat:tick handler — the dance floor breathes in time. */
@@ -347,7 +386,7 @@ export class FloorView {
     });
     if (this.dj && this.djBob > 0) {
       this.djBob = Math.max(0, this.djBob - dtMs / 200);
-      this.dj.setY(22.5 * TILE - 2 * this.djBob);
+      this.dj.setY(this.djBaseY - 2 * this.djBob);
     }
     const t = this.scene.time.now;
     for (const f of this.flickerLights) {
@@ -675,6 +714,8 @@ const PROP_SIZES: Record<PropKind, [number, number]> = {
   cdj: [32, 32], rollerDoor: [64, 32], ruleBoard: [32, 32],
   // Staff figures (set dressing, all venues)
   staffBartender: [16, 32], staffDj: [16, 32], staffGlassie: [16, 32], staffSecurity: [16, 32],
+  // Wall surfaces
+  mirror: [32, 16], graffiti: [32, 16],
 };
 
 function bakePropPlaceholder(scene: Phaser.Scene, kind: PropKind): string {
diff --git a/src/scenes/floor/layouts/elevate.ts b/src/scenes/floor/layouts/elevate.ts
index 8ca55fe..4ca7b23 100644
--- a/src/scenes/floor/layouts/elevate.ts
+++ b/src/scenes/floor/layouts/elevate.ts
@@ -152,10 +152,10 @@ const SKYLINE: PropEmissive = { colour: 0xd8a848, radius: 56 };
 const PROPS: readonly PropDef[] = Object.freeze([
   // --- lift lobby ------------------------------------------------------------
   P('liftDoors', 'liftDoor', 0, 22, 1, 3),
-  // No 'mirror' PropKind exists and the union is frozen after Phase 0, so both
-  // of this venue's mirrors are flat wall plates borrowed from the poster slot.
-  // TODO(contract): a `mirror` kind would let these stop lying.
-  P('lobbyMirror', 'poster3', 1, 19, 2, 1),
+  // A real 'mirror' kind now exists (it was raised as a contract request and
+  // granted in the same session) — these were both `poster3`, which would have
+  // hung the same torn gig poster in a marble lift lobby and called it a mirror.
+  P('lobbyMirror', 'mirror', 1, 19, 2, 1),
   P('lobbyArt', 'poster1', 1, 26, 2, 1),
   P('podium', 'stampPodium', 11, 23, 1, 1),
   P('ropeL1', 'ropePost', 5, 21, 1, 1),
@@ -177,7 +177,10 @@ const PROPS: readonly PropDef[] = Object.freeze([
   P('fridge', 'barFridge', 33, 8, 2, 2, { colour: 0x60c0e0, radius: 16 }),
   P('dish', 'dishwasher', 20, 8, 2, 1, { colour: 0x50c060, radius: 20 }),
   P('rack', 'glassRack', 36, 9, 2, 1),
-  P('bartender', 'staffBartender', 25, BAR_LANE_Y, 1, 1),
+  // West end of the service lane, NOT on `posts.taps` (25,9) — that is the tile
+  // the bar shift plants the player on, and a staff sprite there means playing
+  // the whole shift from inside the bartender.
+  P('bartender', 'staffBartender', 20, BAR_LANE_Y, 1, 1),
 
   // --- DJ plinth -------------------------------------------------------------
   P('plinth', 'djPlinth', 29, 16, 7, 2),
@@ -186,7 +189,10 @@ const PROPS: readonly PropDef[] = Object.freeze([
   P('deckB', 'deck', 33, 16, 2, 2),
   P('monitor', 'monitor', 29, 17, 1, 1),
   P('djLamp', 'boothLamp', 35, 16, 1, 1, { colour: 0x3060c0, radius: 38, pulse: 'flicker' }),
-  P('theDj', 'staffDj', 34, 15, 1, 1),
+  // No staffDj prop here on purpose. FloorView draws a RESIDENT DJ in every
+  // venue, positioned from that venue's gear and stepped clear of `posts.decks`
+  // — so a staffDj prop on the plinth would put two DJs on it before the player
+  // takes a DJ shift, and three afterwards.
 
   // --- dance floor -----------------------------------------------------------
   P('spkNW', 'speaker', 25, 20, 1, 2),
@@ -211,7 +217,7 @@ const PROPS: readonly PropDef[] = Object.freeze([
 
   // --- toilets ---------------------------------------------------------------
   P('basin', 'marbleSink', 48, 15, 5, 1),
-  P('looMirror', 'poster3', 48, 14, 5, 1),
+  P('looMirror', 'mirror', 48, 14, 5, 1),
   P('cubDoorA', 'cubicleDoor', 48, 11, 1, 1),
   P('cubDoorB', 'cubicleDoor', 52, 11, 1, 1),
   P('dryer', 'handDryer', 55, 13, 1, 1),
diff --git a/src/scenes/floor/layouts/room.ts b/src/scenes/floor/layouts/room.ts
index 7b89076..62aab89 100644
--- a/src/scenes/floor/layouts/room.ts
+++ b/src/scenes/floor/layouts/room.ts
@@ -223,6 +223,12 @@ const ROOM_PROPS: readonly PropDef[] = Object.freeze([
 
   // ---- dunnies ---------------------------------------------------------------
   P('basin', 'brokenBasin', 58, 9, 2, 1),
+  // "Graffiti on every surface" is in this venue's brief (docs/VENUES.md §5) and
+  // had no kind to render with until one was added. No mirror in here — that is
+  // the joke, and it is why the tags are the only thing to read.
+  P('tagsN', 'graffiti', 58, 3, 2, 1),
+  P('tagsW', 'graffiti', 58, 12, 2, 1),
+  P('tagsE', 'graffiti', 70, 8, 2, 1),
   // Only the first cubicle still has a door on it. The other two tell their
   // story with what's on the floor outside them instead.
   P('cubDoor', 'cubicleDoor', 60, 6, 1, 1),
diff --git a/src/scenes/floor/layouts/theRoyal.ts b/src/scenes/floor/layouts/theRoyal.ts
index 7ae8b7e..01eaec7 100644
--- a/src/scenes/floor/layouts/theRoyal.ts
+++ b/src/scenes/floor/layouts/theRoyal.ts
@@ -29,9 +29,9 @@ import type {
   TileKind, TilePoint, VenueMap, WorldPoint, ZoneLight,
 } from '../venueMap';
 
-// Two cubicles, not four — it is a pub, not a club. They share a wall column so
-// there is no useless one-tile slot between them, and CUBICLE_Y sits flush under
-// the dunny's north wall.
+// Two cubicles, not four — it is a pub, not a club. They abut directly (cols
+// 65-68 and 69-72) so there is no useless one-tile slot between them, and
+// CUBICLE_Y sits flush under the dunny's north wall.
 const CUBICLE_X = [65, 69] as const;
 const CUBICLE_Y = 17;
 
@@ -117,7 +117,7 @@ function buildTiles(): TileKind[] {
   set(29, 33, 'smokeDoor');
 
   // The only neon in the building: two beer signs in the front windows, the TAB
-  // sign over the pokie room door, and whatever is left of the one by the decks.
+  // sign over the pokie room door, and the jukebox's own tube in the far corner.
   for (const tx of [40, 52]) set(tx, 0, 'neon');
   set(66, 12, 'neon');
   set(MAP_W - 1, 37, 'neon');
@@ -214,15 +214,22 @@ const PROPS: readonly PropDef[] = Object.freeze([
   P('pokieF', 'pokie', 63, 6, 2, 2, POKIE_GLOW),
   P('tabA', 'tabBoard', 69, 1, 4, 2, { colour: 0x50b0c0, radius: 18 }),
   P('tabB', 'tabBoard', 74, 1, 4, 2, { colour: 0x50b0c0, radius: 18 }),
-  P('tabRace', 'tvSport', 66, 9, 3, 2, { colour: 0x6090c0, radius: 18 }),
+  // On the pokie room's south wall (row 12), not floating at row 9 — a bank of
+  // betting screens standing in the middle of the carpet reads as an accident.
+  P('tabRace', 'tvSport', 66, 11, 3, 1, { colour: 0x6090c0, radius: 18 }),
 
   // dunnies — the trough, the one basin, and the cubicle that has been "getting
   // looked at" since the Blues won a series
-  P('trough', 'trough', 74, 17, 4, 1),
+  // The trough carries its own fluoro: 'looN' sits over the cubicles and its
+  // spill dies well short of this alcove, so the one fixture the room is
+  // actually known for was rendering in the dark.
+  P('trough', 'trough', 74, 17, 4, 1, { colour: 0x50c060, radius: 26, pulse: 'flicker' }),
   P('basin', 'sinkRow', 70, 27, 1, 1),
   P('cubDoorA', 'cubicleDoor', 66, 20, 1, 1),
   P('cubDoorB', 'cubicleDoor', 70, 20, 1, 1),
-  P('outOfOrder', 'wetFloor', 70, 21, 1, 1),
+  // One tile west of stall s2's door (70,21): that tile is both the door and
+  // the toilet anchor, so a sign placed on it is a sign the queue stands on.
+  P('outOfOrder', 'wetFloor', 69, 21, 1, 1),
   P('mopBucket', 'mopBucket', 71, 22, 1, 1),
   P('dryer', 'handDryer', 77, 26, 1, 1),
 
@@ -305,6 +312,12 @@ const LIGHTS: readonly ZoneLight[] = Object.freeze([
   L('dj', 55, 36, 0x3060c0, 36),
   L('yardW', 20, 38, 0x6080a0, 48),
   L('yardE', 37, 38, 0x6080a0, 48),
+  // The garden is 288 tiles — ten times Voltage's yard — and on two lights its
+  // whole middle band went dark, including the gate everyone comes through.
+  L('yardGate', 29, 36, 0x6080a0, 42),
+  L('yardMid', 28, 40, 0x6080a0, 40),
+  L('yardFarW', 15, 40, 0x6080a0, 36),
+  L('yardFarE', 43, 39, 0x6080a0, 36),
   // Entry keeps the house pink: navigate-by-glow is a rule across all four
   // venues (SPACES.md §1), so the way out has to read the same everywhere.
   L('entry', 3, 14, 0xd03470, 34),
diff --git a/src/scenes/floor/venueMap.ts b/src/scenes/floor/venueMap.ts
index e265cbb..e38f38a 100644
--- a/src/scenes/floor/venueMap.ts
+++ b/src/scenes/floor/venueMap.ts
@@ -226,7 +226,11 @@ export type PropKind =
   // dollPlan draws the exact items the dress code convicts on, so a
   // pre-rendered patron would make the convictions invisible (FABLE-SOLO-23).
   // A bartender who never moves carries no mechanical weight, so she can be art.
-  | 'staffBartender' | 'staffDj' | 'staffGlassie' | 'staffSecurity';
+  | 'staffBartender' | 'staffDj' | 'staffGlassie' | 'staffSecurity'
+  // Wall surfaces. Added after review: Elevate was standing BOTH its mirrors up
+  // as `poster3`, so the lift lobby and the marble bathroom would have rendered
+  // the same torn gig poster and called it a mirror.
+  | 'mirror' | 'graffiti';
 
 export interface PropEmissive {
   colour: number;
diff --git a/tests/floor/layout-room.test.ts b/tests/floor/layout-room.test.ts
index ea5da81..106e2fa 100644
--- a/tests/floor/layout-room.test.ts
+++ b/tests/floor/layout-room.test.ts
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ describe('ROOM layout', () => {
   });
 
   it('is darker than Voltage: fewer lights, tighter radii, sodium over the dock', () => {
-    // Voltage runs 19 zone lights with dance pools at radius 26. If ROOM ever
+    // Voltage runs 20 zone lights with dance pools at radius 26. If ROOM ever
     // catches up with that, the torch has stopped being the mechanic.
     expect(ROOM.lights.length).toBeLessThanOrEqual(14);
     for (const l of ROOM.lights) expect(l.radius, `light '${l.id}' is too big for ROOM`).toBeLessThanOrEqual(40);
diff --git a/tests/floor/layoutInvariants.ts b/tests/floor/layoutInvariants.ts
index f6c9d98..8b67831 100644
--- a/tests/floor/layoutInvariants.ts
+++ b/tests/floor/layoutInvariants.ts
@@ -174,6 +174,23 @@ export function assertLayout(
     expect(p.tx + p.tw, `${layout.id}: prop '${p.id}' overhangs the east edge`).toBeLessThanOrEqual(MAP_W);
     expect(p.ty + p.th, `${layout.id}: prop '${p.id}' overhangs the south edge`).toBeLessThanOrEqual(MAP_H);
   }
+  // A staff figure is set dressing; a POST is the tile the game teleports the
+  // player onto for a shift. Put them on the same tile and the player spends
+  // the whole shift standing inside the bartender — which reads as a rendering
+  // glitch, not as a colleague.
+  const postTiles = new Set(Object.values(posts).map((p) => key(p.tx, p.ty)));
+  for (const p of props) {
+    if (!p.kind.startsWith('staff')) continue;
+    for (let ty = p.ty; ty < p.ty + p.th; ty++) {
+      for (let tx = p.tx; tx < p.tx + p.tw; tx++) {
+        expect(
+          postTiles.has(key(tx, ty)),
+          `${layout.id}: staff prop '${p.id}' stands on a post tile (${tx},${ty})`,
+        ).toBe(false);
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
   const lightIds = new Set<string>();
   for (const l of lights) {
     expect(lightIds.has(l.id), `${layout.id}: duplicate light id '${l.id}'`).toBe(false);
diff --git a/tools/gen/assets.py b/tools/gen/assets.py
index de0eb59..57f6d0c 100644
--- a/tools/gen/assets.py
+++ b/tools/gen/assets.py
@@ -164,6 +164,14 @@ ROOM = [
       "cryptic house rules, chipped frame"),
 ]
 
+# ---- Wall surfaces (flat by nature — flux draws these directly) ---------------
+WALLS = [
+    F("mirror", (32, 16), 4480,
+      "a large wall mirror in a plain frame reflecting dim room lights"),
+    F("graffiti", (32, 16), 4481,
+      "a concrete toilet wall completely covered in layered marker tags and scrawl"),
+]
+
 # ---- Staff figures (set dressing props, never patrons) ------------------------
 STAFF = [
     M("staffBartender", (16, 32), 4460, 76,
@@ -192,7 +200,7 @@ STREETS = [
       gen=(2048, 576), quantise=False, keep_bg=True),
 ]
 
-ALL: list[Asset] = [*ROYAL, *ELEVATE, *ROOM, *STAFF, *STREETS]
+ALL: list[Asset] = [*ROYAL, *ELEVATE, *ROOM, *WALLS, *STAFF, *STREETS]
 
 BY_KIND = {a.kind: a for a in ALL}
 
diff --git a/tools/gen/mb.py b/tools/gen/mb.py
index e1eb9d8..fab1a52 100644
--- a/tools/gen/mb.py
+++ b/tools/gen/mb.py
@@ -45,19 +45,46 @@ def _scrub(raw: bytes) -> object:
     return json.loads("".join(c if c >= " " or c == "\t" else " " for c in text))
 
 
+class MBError(RuntimeError):
+    """A farm call failed. A normal Exception ON PURPOSE.
+
+    This used to raise SystemExit, which is a BaseException — so when the batch
+    generator started running three assets in worker threads, `except Exception`
+    did not catch it and a single transient blip took the whole run down instead
+    of costing one prop. That happened: a stray 401 during a poll killed a
+    43-asset batch after one asset.
+    """
+
+
+# A poll every few seconds across three concurrent assets occasionally comes
+# back 401 or 5xx from a farm that is perfectly healthy a second later. Retrying
+# is right for everything except a token that is genuinely wrong — and that
+# fails on the very first call, long before a batch is in flight.
+_RETRY_STATUS = {401, 429, 500, 502, 503, 504}
+
+
 def _req(path: str, data: bytes | None = None, headers: dict[str, str] | None = None,
-         raw: bool = False, timeout: int = 180) -> object:
-    head = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {creds.get('MB_TOKEN')}"}
-    head.update(headers or {})
-    req = urllib.request.Request(HOST + path, data=data, headers=head)
-    try:
-        body = urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=timeout).read()
-    except urllib.error.HTTPError as exc:
-        detail = exc.read().decode(errors="ignore")[:400]
-        raise SystemExit(f"MODELBEAST HTTP {exc.code} on {path}: {detail}") from None
-    except urllib.error.URLError as exc:
-        raise SystemExit(f"MODELBEAST unreachable at {HOST}: {exc.reason}") from None
-    return body if raw else _scrub(body)
+         raw: bool = False, timeout: int = 180, attempts: int = 4) -> object:
+    delay = 2.0
+    last = ""
+    for attempt in range(1, attempts + 1):
+        head = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {creds.get('MB_TOKEN')}"}
+        head.update(headers or {})
+        req = urllib.request.Request(HOST + path, data=data, headers=head)
+        try:
+            body = urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=timeout).read()
+            return body if raw else _scrub(body)
+        except urllib.error.HTTPError as exc:
+            last = f"HTTP {exc.code} on {path}: {exc.read().decode(errors='ignore')[:300]}"
+            if exc.code not in _RETRY_STATUS or attempt == attempts:
+                raise MBError(f"MODELBEAST {last}") from None
+        except (urllib.error.URLError, TimeoutError, OSError) as exc:
+            last = f"unreachable at {HOST}: {exc}"
+            if attempt == attempts:
+                raise MBError(f"MODELBEAST {last}") from None
+        time.sleep(delay)
+        delay *= 2
+    raise MBError(f"MODELBEAST {last}")
 
 
 def ops() -> list[str]: