diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/cursor.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/cursor.rs
index 70a7d346..191db3bc 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/cursor.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/cursor.rs
@@ -42,6 +42,9 @@ fn payload_icon(script: &benilla_ui::script::UiScript) -> Option<String> {
         CursorPayload::Action(a) => a.texture,
         CursorPayload::Macro(m) => m.texture,
         CursorPayload::PetAction(p) => p.texture,
+        // Mode 10 — the stabled pet's family icon (decision 1677). Always present: a non-empty
+        // icon path is the grab's own gate.
+        CursorPayload::StablePet(p) => Some(p.texture),
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/glue/widgets.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/glue/widgets.rs
index 2eaec2d2..bcae8988 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/glue/widgets.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/glue/widgets.rs
@@ -131,6 +131,43 @@ pub(crate) fn outlined_text<W: Bundle, T: Bundle>(
         &markup_spans(spec.text, spec.color, spec.wrap),
         spec.size,
         spec.wrap,
+        Justify::Left,
+        font,
+        s,
+    )
+}
+
+/// [`outlined_text`], **centred** — for a wrapped paragraph the reference centres.
+///
+/// A separate door rather than a field on [`GlueText`] because centring is the exception here, and
+/// naming it at the one call site that wants it is cheaper and clearer than a fifth field on
+/// thirty-three literals. The justification has to reach all nine strings (the eight outline copies
+/// share the layout), so it cannot be inserted onto the real text afterwards.
+///
+/// **Which way round is faithful is not obvious**, so: a `FontString` with no `justifyH` defaults
+/// to **CENTER**, and `GlueDialogText` (`GlueDialog.xml:56`) omits it — so the dialog is centred.
+/// Every *other* wrapped glue string in the shipped XML sets `justifyH="LEFT"` explicitly
+/// (`CharacterCreate.xml`'s race/class/faction bodies, `AddonList.xml`'s title/notes/deps), which
+/// is why [`outlined_text`] stays left and this is the exception rather than the default.
+#[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)]
+pub(crate) fn outlined_text_centered<W: Bundle, T: Bundle>(
+    parent: &mut ChildSpawnerCommands,
+    node: Node,
+    wrapper_extra: W,
+    text_extra: T,
+    spec: GlueText,
+    font: &Handle<Font>,
+    s: f32,
+) -> Entity {
+    outlined_spans(
+        parent,
+        node,
+        wrapper_extra,
+        text_extra,
+        &markup_spans(spec.text, spec.color, spec.wrap),
+        spec.size,
+        spec.wrap,
+        Justify::Center,
         font,
         s,
     )
@@ -216,16 +253,20 @@ fn outlined_spans<W: Bundle, T: Bundle>(
     spans: &[(String, Color)],
     size: f32,
     wrap: bool,
+    justify: Justify,
     font: &Handle<Font>,
     s: f32,
 ) -> Entity {
+    // Both fields set, so no `..default()` — `TextLayout` has exactly these two, and clippy's
+    // `needless_update` is right that spelling a rest-pattern here only hides the next field
+    // Bevy adds.
     let layout = TextLayout {
         linebreak: if wrap {
             LineBreak::WordBoundary
         } else {
             LineBreak::NoWrap
         },
-        ..default()
+        justify,
     };
     let tf = TextFont {
         font: font.clone(),
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/login/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/login/mod.rs
index a3993523..04822db7 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/login/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/login/mod.rs
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 //! [`screen`] (the authored layout, transcribed from `AccountLogin.xml`), [`smoke`] (the
 //! `WOW_LOGIN_SMOKE` headless prover).
 
+mod queue;
 mod screen;
 mod smoke;
 
@@ -37,8 +38,8 @@ use benilla_protocol::{DialFailure, LoginRefusal, LoginStage};
 use crate::char_select::ClientState;
 use crate::glue_strings::GlueStrings;
 use crate::net::{
-    CharListMessage, DisconnectedMessage, LoginAbandon, LoginFailedMessage, LoginRequest,
-    LoginStageMessage, LoginSubmit,
+    CharListMessage, DisconnectedMessage, LoginAbandon, LoginFailedMessage, LoginQueuedMessage,
+    LoginRequest, LoginStageMessage, LoginSubmit,
 };
 use crate::portrait::{GluePreview, GlueScene};
 use crate::sound::GlueSound;
@@ -178,6 +179,36 @@ impl Attempt<'_> {
     }
 }
 
+/// The millisecond clock the queue ring is stamped with — the app's own elapsed time, which is
+/// what the reference's `GetTickCount` is here. Only differences matter to the estimate, so an
+/// arbitrary epoch is fine; `u32` keeps the wrapping arithmetic the same width the reference used.
+fn queue_now_ms(time: &Time) -> u32 {
+    time.elapsed().as_millis() as u32
+}
+
+/// What a Login press should do — the reference's two guards, as a verdict.
+///
+/// Extracted from [`login_input`] so the validation can be tested without standing a screen up,
+/// and so the click sound has somewhere to live that is not inside one of its branches.
+#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+enum LoginPress {
+    NeedAccount,
+    NeedPassword,
+    Submit,
+}
+
+/// The account box is checked first, so a wholly empty form asks for the account name — which is
+/// the order the reference's dialogs come in.
+fn login_press(form: &LoginForm) -> LoginPress {
+    if form.account.text.is_empty() {
+        LoginPress::NeedAccount
+    } else if form.password.text.is_empty() {
+        LoginPress::NeedPassword
+    } else {
+        LoginPress::Submit
+    }
+}
+
 /// The `LOGIN_STATE_*` glue string for a stage (the connecting dialog's text).
 fn stage_text(strings: &GlueStrings, stage: LoginStage) -> &str {
     match stage {
@@ -211,11 +242,12 @@ fn fail_text(
         };
         return format!("{headline}\n{}", dial.address);
     }
-    match refusal {
-        Some(LoginRefusal::World(code)) => world_refusal_text(strings, code).to_string(),
-        Some(LoginRefusal::Logon(code)) => logon_refusal_text(strings, Some(code)).to_string(),
-        None => logon_refusal_text(strings, None).to_string(),
-    }
+    let authored = match refusal {
+        Some(LoginRefusal::World(code)) => world_refusal_text(strings, code),
+        Some(LoginRefusal::Logon(code)) => logon_refusal_text(strings, Some(code)),
+        None => logon_refusal_text(strings, None),
+    };
+    without_dead_url(authored).into_owned()
 }
 
 /// **The world server's** `SMSG_AUTH_RESPONSE` refusal, in the client's own words.
@@ -278,6 +310,42 @@ fn world_refusal_text(strings: &GlueStrings, code: u8) -> &str {
     strings.text(key, fallback)
 }
 
+/// Cut the **dead web address** off the tail of an authored failure string (director's call,
+/// 2026-08-28).
+///
+/// Every long `LOGIN_*`/`AUTH_*` string ends by pointing the player at a Blizzard page —
+/// `www.worldofwarcraft.com`, `worldofwarcraft.com/misc/banned.html`. None has served anything in
+/// fifteen years, and none was ever about *this* server: benilla's player is on somebody's private
+/// realm, where "see www.worldofwarcraft.com for more information" is not merely stale but
+/// misdirection. The rest of the sentence is still worth reading, so the address is cut at its
+/// **clause**, not its sentence — `"…a lost or stolen password and account, see
+/// www.worldofwarcraft.com for more information."` becomes `"…a lost or stolen password and
+/// account."`
+///
+/// Find the first web address, walk back to the clause boundary before it (a comma or a full
+/// stop), end there. **With no boundary to walk back to the string is left exactly as it is** —
+/// that guard is what stops `AUTH_BANNED` ("…violating the Terms of Use Agreement -
+/// www.worldofwarcraft.com/termsofuse.shtml…"), whose address sits behind a dash with no clause
+/// break before it, from being trimmed away to nothing.
+fn without_dead_url(text: &str) -> std::borrow::Cow<'_, str> {
+    let Some(url) = ["www.", "http://", "https://"]
+        .iter()
+        .filter_map(|p| text.find(p))
+        .min()
+    else {
+        return std::borrow::Cow::Borrowed(text);
+    };
+    let head = &text[..url];
+    let Some(cut) = head.rfind([',', '.']) else {
+        return std::borrow::Cow::Borrowed(text);
+    };
+    let kept = head[..cut].trim_end();
+    if kept.is_empty() {
+        return std::borrow::Cow::Borrowed(text);
+    }
+    std::borrow::Cow::Owned(format!("{kept}."))
+}
+
 /// The **realmd** logon-proof refusal, in the client's own words — the LONG `LOGIN_*` family.
 ///
 /// **This table was wrong in every row until decision 1679**, and wrong in an instructive way: the
@@ -376,6 +444,7 @@ fn drive_policy(
     strings: Option<Res<GlueStrings>>,
     time: Res<Time>,
     mut stages: MessageReader<LoginStageMessage>,
+    mut queued: MessageReader<LoginQueuedMessage>,
     mut failures: MessageReader<LoginFailedMessage>,
     mut disconnects: MessageReader<DisconnectedMessage>,
     mut exit: MessageWriter<AppExit>,
@@ -443,6 +512,32 @@ fn drive_policy(
             dialog.set_text(stage_text(strings, msg.stage));
         }
     }
+    // **The queue** (decision 1681): each packet is one sample, and the first one turns the
+    // connecting dialog into the queue dialog. A queue is not a failure — the attempt is still in
+    // flight and `in_flight` deliberately stays set, so nothing resubmits underneath it.
+    for msg in queued.read() {
+        if !matches!(dialog.kind, Some(DialogKind::Queued)) {
+            dialog.open_queued(msg.realm.clone());
+        }
+        if let Some(position) = msg.position {
+            dialog.queue.sample(position, queue_now_ms(&time));
+        }
+        info!(
+            "login: queued for {} at position {}",
+            msg.realm.as_deref().unwrap_or("the realm"),
+            msg.position
+                .map_or_else(|| "unknown".to_string(), |p| p.to_string()),
+        );
+    }
+    // The countdown is live between packets, so the text is recomputed every frame it is up.
+    if matches!(dialog.kind, Some(DialogKind::Queued)) {
+        let text = dialog.queue.text(
+            queue_now_ms(&time),
+            dialog.queue_realm.clone().as_deref(),
+            strings,
+        );
+        dialog.set_text(&text);
+    }
     for msg in failures.read() {
         attempt.intent.in_flight = false;
         attempt.intent.park = IoPark::AtLogin;
@@ -561,7 +656,7 @@ fn to_select_on_roster(
 // ── The screen's form state + input ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
 /// Which edit box has the focus.
-#[derive(Default, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq)]
+#[derive(Default, Clone, Copy, PartialEq, Eq, Debug)]
 pub(super) enum Field {
     #[default]
     Account,
@@ -594,6 +689,24 @@ impl Default for LoginForm {
 }
 
 impl LoginForm {
+    /// Give `field` the keyboard **and select everything already in it**.
+    ///
+    /// **A knowing divergence** (director's call, 2026-08-28). The reference does neither on a
+    /// click nor a TAB: `CEditBox::OnMouseDown` (`0x77b800`) "focuses unconditionally" and
+    /// `SetFocus` (`0x77e3d0`) only moves the focus — neither highlights (wow-re `ui.md` §1210,
+    /// §1218). But the thing a player does after clicking into a login field is *replace* what is
+    /// there — a remembered account name, a mistyped password — and having to select-all or
+    /// backspace it out first is friction the reference only avoids by being what everyone was
+    /// used to in 2006.
+    ///
+    /// The selection uses the client's own `HighlightText(0, -1)` (`0x77cca0`), which resets the
+    /// blink on its way, so the box still opens on a solid caret — the property the old
+    /// `reset_blink()` calls at these sites existed to preserve.
+    fn focus(&mut self, field: Field) {
+        self.focus = field;
+        self.focused().highlight_text(0, -1);
+    }
+
     /// The box that currently owns the keyboard.
     fn focused(&mut self) -> &mut EditBoxState {
         match self.focus {
@@ -621,8 +734,10 @@ fn enter_login(mut form: ResMut<LoginForm>, mut preview: ResMut<GluePreview>) {
     form.account.set_text(&saved);
     form.password.set_text("");
     // `SetFocus` starts the caret solid — the screen never opens mid-blink-off (`set_text` alone
-    // wouldn't do it: it no-ops when the saved name is already in the box).
-    form.focused().reset_blink();
+    // wouldn't do it: it no-ops when the saved name is already in the box) — and selects, so a
+    // remembered account name is typed over rather than appended to.
+    let focus = form.focus;
+    form.focus(focus);
     preview.scene = Some(GlueScene::MainMenu);
     preview.look = None;
     preview.yaw = 0.0;
@@ -673,17 +788,10 @@ fn login_input(
         // gave, without costing this system a second query.
         if interaction.is_changed() && *interaction == Interaction::Pressed {
             match action {
-                // A click takes the focus the same way TAB does — including the solid caret the
-                // fresh focus starts on, so the box you just clicked never answers with a blank
-                // half-period.
-                LoginAction::FocusAccount => {
-                    form.focus = Field::Account;
-                    form.focused().reset_blink();
-                }
-                LoginAction::FocusPassword => {
-                    form.focus = Field::Password;
-                    form.focused().reset_blink();
-                }
+                // A click takes the focus the same way TAB does — the solid caret, and the
+                // select-all that makes the next keystroke replace what is in the box.
+                LoginAction::FocusAccount => form.focus(Field::Account),
+                LoginAction::FocusPassword => form.focus(Field::Password),
                 _ => {}
             }
         }
@@ -698,7 +806,12 @@ fn login_input(
             // The realmlist control (1667) — the button and the address readout under it are
             // the same action, so clicking either opens the editor.
             LoginAction::Realmlist => {
-                sounds.write(GlueSound("gsClick"));
+                // `gsLoginNewAccount` — what the reference plays for the other buttons in this
+                // corner (`AccountLogin_ManageAccount`, `AccountLogin_LaunchCommunitySite`), which
+                // is the closest authored answer for a button it does not have. It replaces a
+                // `gsClick` I invented in 1667: no such SoundEntries kit exists, so that press was
+                // silently playing nothing at all.
+                sounds.write(GlueSound("gsLoginNewAccount"));
                 if attempt.realmlist.pinned_by_env() {
                     // A harness/dev run owns the address for the session (`cvars`' env-override
                     // law). Say so rather than opening an editor whose Okay would be a silent
@@ -772,11 +885,11 @@ fn login_input(
             continue;
         }
         if ev.state == ButtonState::Pressed && ev.key_code == KeyCode::Tab {
-            form.focus = match form.focus {
+            let next = match form.focus {
                 Field::Account => Field::Password,
                 Field::Password => Field::Account,
             };
-            form.focused().reset_blink();
+            form.focus(next);
         }
     }
 
@@ -790,24 +903,39 @@ fn login_input(
     }
 
     if do_login && !attempt.intent.in_flight {
-        // The ref's own guards: empty account / empty password get their dialog, no wire.
-        if form.account.text.is_empty() {
-            dialog.open_error(strings.text("LOGIN_ENTER_NAME", "Please enter your account name."));
-        } else if form.password.text.is_empty() {
-            dialog.open_error(strings.text("LOGIN_ENTER_PASSWORD", "Please enter your password."));
-        } else {
-            sounds.write(GlueSound("gsLogin"));
-            // `AccountLogin_Login`: save or clear the account name per the checkbox, clear the
-            // password box after grabbing it.
-            if form.save {
-                save_account(&form.account.text);
-            } else {
-                save_account("");
+        // **`gsLogin` first, always** — `AccountLogin_Login` plays it before it calls
+        // `DefaultServerLogin`, so the reference clicks even when the attempt is about to be
+        // refused for an empty box. Ours played it only on the path that reached the wire, so a
+        // Login press with a field still blank was silent and the dialog appeared out of nowhere
+        // (the director's "the sound of the popup is sometimes missing"). It sits OUTSIDE the
+        // match on purpose: a sound that is structurally unconditional cannot go missing on some
+        // branch again.
+        sounds.write(GlueSound("gsLogin"));
+        match login_press(&form) {
+            // The ref's own guards: empty account / empty password get their dialog, no wire.
+            LoginPress::NeedAccount => {
+                dialog.open_error(
+                    strings.text("LOGIN_ENTER_NAME", "Please enter your account name."),
+                );
+            }
+            LoginPress::NeedPassword => {
+                dialog.open_error(
+                    strings.text("LOGIN_ENTER_PASSWORD", "Please enter your password."),
+                );
+            }
+            LoginPress::Submit => {
+                // `AccountLogin_Login`: save or clear the account name per the checkbox, clear the
+                // password box after grabbing it.
+                if form.save {
+                    save_account(&form.account.text);
+                } else {
+                    save_account("");
+                }
+                let (user, pass) = (form.account.text.clone(), form.password.text.clone());
+                form.password.set_text("");
+                dialog.open_status(strings.text("LOGIN_STATE_CONNECTING", "Connecting"));
+                attempt.send(&user, &pass, true);
             }
-            let (user, pass) = (form.account.text.clone(), form.password.text.clone());
-            form.password.set_text("");
-            dialog.open_status(strings.text("LOGIN_STATE_CONNECTING", "Connecting"));
-            attempt.send(&user, &pass, true);
         }
     }
     if do_quit && !*quit {
@@ -869,6 +997,12 @@ fn drive_quit(arm: Option<Res<QuitArm>>, time: Res<Time>, mut exit: MessageWrite
 pub(super) enum DialogKind {
     Status,
     Error,
+    /// **Queued for a full realm** (decision 1681). The reference has no queue dialog *type*: it
+    /// opens the ordinary `CANCEL` status dialog and re-texts it every frame, relabelling the one
+    /// button to `CHANGE_REALM`. This is that, as a kind — the relabel is the only thing that
+    /// distinguishes it from [`Self::Status`], and a kind is how this screen spells "different
+    /// button caption".
+    Queued,
     /// The realmlist editor (decision 1667) — the reference's `GlueDialog` `hasEditBox` shape,
     /// which is how the shipped dialog asks for a typed value (`GlueDialog.lua`: it shows
     /// `GlueDialogEditBox` and re-heights the box to
@@ -888,6 +1022,8 @@ impl DialogKind {
     pub(super) fn buttons(self, strings: &GlueStrings) -> (&str, Option<&str>) {
         match self {
             DialogKind::Status => (strings.text("CANCEL", "Cancel"), None),
+            // The reference's own relabel: leaving a queue is "Change Realm", not "Cancel".
+            DialogKind::Queued => (strings.text("CHANGE_REALM", "Change Realm"), None),
             DialogKind::Error => (strings.text("OKAY", "Okay"), None),
             DialogKind::Realmlist => (
                 strings.text("OKAY", "Okay"),
@@ -917,6 +1053,11 @@ pub(crate) struct LoginDialog {
     /// (decision 0704). Only meaningful while a [`DialogKind::has_edit_box`] dialog is up; it is
     /// rebuilt from the current value on every open, so a cancelled edit leaves nothing behind.
     pub(super) edit: EditBoxState,
+    /// The queue's sample ring and the realm it is for — live only while [`DialogKind::Queued`]
+    /// is up, and rebuilt from empty on every fresh queue so a second login never inherits the
+    /// first one's estimate.
+    pub(super) queue: queue::QueueEstimate,
+    queue_realm: Option<String>,
     /// The kind the spawned tree was built for.
     spawned: Option<DialogKind>,
     /// The glue scale the spawned tree was built at — a resize rebuilds it.
@@ -932,6 +1073,14 @@ impl LoginDialog {
         self.kind = Some(DialogKind::Error);
         self.set_text(text);
     }
+    /// Enter the queue: a fresh ring (a second login must not inherit the first one's estimate)
+    /// and the realm's name for the `_NAME` text variants.
+    fn open_queued(&mut self, realm: Option<String>) {
+        self.kind = Some(DialogKind::Queued);
+        self.queue = queue::QueueEstimate::default();
+        self.queue_realm = realm;
+        self.set_text("");
+    }
     /// Open the realmlist editor over `current`, with the caret at the end of it and the whole
     /// value selected — the reference's `hasEditBox` dialogs open ready to be typed over, and a
     /// player changing servers is replacing the address far more often than editing it.
@@ -976,6 +1125,7 @@ fn drive_dialog(
     buttons: Query<(Entity, &LoginAction)>,
     clicks: Res<crate::glue::GlueClicks>,
     mut texts: Query<&mut Text, With<screen::DialogText>>,
+    mut sounds: MessageWriter<GlueSound>,
     window: Query<&Window, With<bevy::window::PrimaryWindow>>,
 ) {
     let empty = GlueStrings::default();
@@ -1026,13 +1176,22 @@ fn drive_dialog(
     let escape = keys.just_pressed(KeyCode::Escape);
     let button1 = hit(LoginAction::Dialog)
         || match kind {
-            // The status dialog's one button IS Cancel, so ESCAPE is it.
-            DialogKind::Status => escape,
+            // The status dialog's one button IS Cancel, so ESCAPE is it. The queue's button is
+            // the same act under another name, so it answers to ESCAPE the same way.
+            DialogKind::Status | DialogKind::Queued => escape,
             DialogKind::Error => escape || enter,
             DialogKind::Realmlist => enter,
         };
     let button2 = hit(LoginAction::Dialog2) || (kind == DialogKind::Realmlist && escape);
 
+    // **Every glue dialog button clicks** — `GlueDialog_OnClick` ends with
+    // `PlaySound("gsTitleOptionOK")` for button 1 and button 2 alike, whatever the dialog's type.
+    // Ours played nothing at all. Emitted here, once, before the kinds diverge, so no arm can
+    // forget it (and so the realmlist editor's Okay-that-refuses still clicks: the reference plays
+    // the sound on the press, not on the outcome).
+    if button1 || button2 {
+        sounds.write(GlueSound("gsTitleOptionOK"));
+    }
     if kind == DialogKind::Realmlist && button1 {
         // Okay: take the typed address, or say why it cannot be taken and stay open with the text
         // as typed — the fix is then an edit, not a retype.
@@ -1048,7 +1207,7 @@ fn drive_dialog(
         return;
     }
     if button1 || button2 {
-        if kind == DialogKind::Status {
+        if matches!(kind, DialogKind::Status | DialogKind::Queued) {
             // Cancel: the next stage boundary discards the attempt; a canceled manual attempt
             // must not silently resubmit later.
             abandon.0.fetch_add(1, Ordering::SeqCst);
@@ -1167,6 +1326,7 @@ mod tests {
                 std::sync::atomic::AtomicU64::new(0),
             )))
             .add_message::<LoginStageMessage>()
+            .add_message::<LoginQueuedMessage>()
             .add_message::<LoginFailedMessage>()
             .add_message::<DisconnectedMessage>()
             .add_systems(Update, drive_policy);
@@ -1426,6 +1586,96 @@ mod tests {
         );
     }
 
+    /// **The dead web address comes off** (director's call) — at the clause, so the sentence in
+    /// front of it survives.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_dead_url_is_cut_at_its_clause() {
+        // The reported one, verbatim from `GlueStrings.lua`.
+        assert_eq!(
+            without_dead_url(
+                "The information you have entered is not valid.  Please check the spelling of the \
+                 account name and password.  If you need help in retrieving a lost or stolen \
+                 password and account, see www.worldofwarcraft.com for more information.",
+            ),
+            "The information you have entered is not valid.  Please check the spelling of the \
+             account name and password.  If you need help in retrieving a lost or stolen password \
+             and account.",
+        );
+        // A whole trailing sentence goes when the address is what the sentence is for.
+        assert_eq!(
+            without_dead_url(
+                "This World of Warcraft account has been closed and is no longer available for \
+                 use.  Please go to http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/misc/banned.html for further \
+                 information. ",
+            ),
+            "This World of Warcraft account has been closed and is no longer available for use.",
+        );
+        // Nothing to cut: left exactly alone, and borrowed rather than rebuilt.
+        let clean = "You have used up your prepaid time for this account.";
+        assert!(matches!(
+            without_dead_url(clean),
+            std::borrow::Cow::Borrowed(_)
+        ));
+        assert_eq!(without_dead_url(clean), clean);
+    }
+
+    /// The guard that stops the trim eating a string whose address has no clause in front of it —
+    /// `AUTH_BANNED`, where the URL sits behind a dash. Better untrimmed than truncated to nothing.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_address_with_no_clause_boundary_is_left_alone() {
+        let banned = "This account has been banned for violating the Terms of Use Agreement - \
+                      www.worldofwarcraft.com/termsofuse.shtml. Please contact our GM department.";
+        assert_eq!(without_dead_url(banned), banned);
+        // …and the degenerate case cannot produce an empty dialog.
+        assert_eq!(without_dead_url("www.example.com"), "www.example.com");
+        assert_eq!(without_dead_url(". www.example.com"), ". www.example.com");
+    }
+
+    /// The Login press's two guards, in the reference's order: a wholly empty form asks for the
+    /// account name first.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_login_press_asks_for_the_account_before_the_password() {
+        let mut form = LoginForm::default();
+        assert_eq!(login_press(&form), LoginPress::NeedAccount);
+        form.account.set_text("one");
+        assert_eq!(login_press(&form), LoginPress::NeedPassword);
+        form.password.set_text("pone");
+        assert_eq!(login_press(&form), LoginPress::Submit);
+        // And a password-only form still asks for the account, not the password.
+        let mut only_pass = LoginForm::default();
+        only_pass.password.set_text("pone");
+        assert_eq!(login_press(&only_pass), LoginPress::NeedAccount);
+    }
+
+    /// **Focusing a box selects it** (director's call, diverging from the reference) — and leaves
+    /// the caret solid, which is what the `reset_blink` calls this replaced were for.
+    #[test]
+    fn focusing_a_box_selects_all_of_it() {
+        let mut form = LoginForm::default();
+        form.account.set_text("remembered");
+        form.password.set_text("secret");
+
+        form.focus(Field::Account);
+        assert_eq!(form.focus, Field::Account);
+        assert_eq!(form.account.selected_text().as_deref(), Some("remembered"));
+        assert!(form.account.caret_shown, "a fresh focus starts solid");
+
+        // TAB to the other box selects that one whole too. Checked as a RANGE, not as text: a
+        // password box's `selected_text` hands back the `*` mask, because the real characters are
+        // never rendered or copied (decision 0704's box law) — which is the correct answer and
+        // exactly why the assertion cannot ask for them.
+        form.focus(Field::Password);
+        assert_eq!(
+            (form.password.sel_start, form.password.sel_end),
+            (0, form.password.text.len()),
+            "the whole password is selected even though it cannot be read back",
+        );
+
+        // Typing then replaces rather than appends — the point of the divergence.
+        form.focused().insert("x");
+        assert_eq!(form.password.text, "x");
+    }
+
     /// The code→string map quotes the client's own strings for the vmangos-verified rows.
     /// The realmd map, against the byte-verified table (wow-re `login-failure-dialogs.md`).
     ///
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/login/queue.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/login/queue.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d3d67f92
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/login/queue.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,320 @@
+//! **The login queue** — our place in line for a full realm, and the reference's own estimate of
+//! how long it will take (decision 1681).
+//!
+//! The realm server answers a login to a full realm with `SMSG_AUTH_RESPONSE(AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE)` and
+//! a position, re-sending as the line moves and ending with `AUTH_OK` when we are admitted. It is
+//! a **wait, not an outcome** — which is what benilla got wrong until this module: the world
+//! handshake treated the code as a refusal, so a busy server was simply unreachable.
+//!
+//! Everything here is the reference's arithmetic, transcribed (VERIFIED, wow-re
+//! `system/glue/scratch/login-failure-dialogs.md` §Q3). It is worth transcribing rather than
+//! reinventing because the estimate is visibly wrong in a *specific* way — it divides before it
+//! multiplies, so it truncates per-person seconds before scaling them by the whole queue — and a
+//! "better" estimator would disagree with the reference by minutes on a long queue.
+//!
+//! Three things about it are deliberately NOT reproduced, each named at its site: the unguarded
+//! 32-bit overflow, the stale-position redisplay on a truncated packet ([`benilla_protocol`]'s
+//! parser), and the leading blank line the reference's composite prints.
+
+/// How many `(tick, position)` samples the estimate is formed from — the reference's ring, exactly
+/// (`0xb41cf8..0xb41d14` ticks, `0xb41d18..0xb41d34` positions).
+const SAMPLES: usize = 8;
+
+/// A minute, in the milliseconds everything here counts in.
+const MINUTE_MS: i64 = 60_000;
+
+/// The reference's queue-estimate ring: `[0]` is the newest sample, `[SAMPLES - 1]` the oldest.
+///
+/// Sampled **once per queue packet, on no timer at all** — so the estimate's whole notion of time
+/// is the server's send cadence. A `tick[SAMPLES - 1]` still zero means fewer than eight packets
+/// have arrived and no estimate exists yet.
+#[derive(Debug, Default, Clone)]
+pub(crate) struct QueueEstimate {
+    tick_ms: [u32; SAMPLES],
+    position: [u32; SAMPLES],
+}
+
+impl QueueEstimate {
+    /// Fold one queue packet in at `now_ms`.
+    ///
+    /// **A position that has not moved does not shift the ring** once it is full — it only restamps
+    /// the newest tick. That is the reference's own guard, and it is what stops a chatty server
+    /// that keeps repeating the same position from flushing the history the estimate is made of.
+    pub(crate) fn sample(&mut self, position: u32, now_ms: u32) {
+        let repeat = position == self.position[0] && self.tick_ms[SAMPLES - 1] != 0;
+        if !repeat {
+            self.tick_ms.rotate_right(1);
+            self.position.rotate_right(1);
+        }
+        self.position[0] = position;
+        self.tick_ms[0] = now_ms;
+    }
+
+    /// Our latest known position, or `None` before any packet.
+    pub(crate) fn position(&self) -> Option<u32> {
+        (self.tick_ms[0] != 0).then_some(self.position[0])
+    }
+
+    /// The estimated wait in milliseconds, or `None` while one cannot be formed.
+    ///
+    /// `floor((now - oldest_tick) / (oldest_pos - newest_pos)) * newest_pos` — **divide first**,
+    /// truncating, then scale. The reference emits `idiv` at `0x46aed3` and `imul` at `0x46aed5`,
+    /// in that order, and the order is load-bearing: at 30 s per person and 100 people ahead,
+    /// dividing first gives the same answer, but at 90 s per two people it discards the remainder
+    /// once for every person in the queue rather than once overall.
+    ///
+    /// Two preconditions, both the reference's: the ring must be full, and the queue must have
+    /// **moved forward** (the oldest position strictly greater than the newest). A queue that has
+    /// not moved, or has moved backwards, yields nothing rather than a negative or infinite wait.
+    ///
+    /// The arithmetic is done in `i64` where the reference uses 32-bit signed and does not guard
+    /// the multiply. That overflow is a defect, not a behaviour: reproducing it would put an
+    /// absurd countdown on screen for a queue long enough to trigger it.
+    pub(crate) fn estimate_ms(&self, now_ms: u32) -> Option<i64> {
+        if self.tick_ms[SAMPLES - 1] == 0 {
+            return None; // fewer than SAMPLES packets so far
+        }
+        let moved = i64::from(self.position[SAMPLES - 1]) - i64::from(self.position[0]);
+        if moved <= 0 {
+            return None; // stalled, or going backwards
+        }
+        let elapsed = i64::from(now_ms.wrapping_sub(self.tick_ms[SAMPLES - 1]));
+        let per_place = elapsed / moved;
+        Some(per_place * i64::from(self.position[0]))
+    }
+
+    /// What the dialog says right now.
+    ///
+    /// `realm` is the realm's name when we know it — the reference reads the `realmName` CVar it
+    /// wrote on the way in, and since that is the only door into the queued state, the **`_NAME`
+    /// variants are what its players actually saw**; the plain "Realm is Full" forms need an empty
+    /// name and effectively never render.
+    ///
+    /// What is displayed is `tick[0] + estimate - now`. That reads like a countdown and **is not
+    /// one**: `estimate` is itself recomputed from `now`, against a divisor fixed by the last eight
+    /// packets, so a silent queue's figure *climbs* — its slope is `places_left / places_moved - 1`,
+    /// positive whenever more people are ahead of you than the ring saw move. The next packet
+    /// re-anchors it. Verified, reproduced deliberately, and pinned by
+    /// `a_silent_queue_inflates_its_own_estimate`: a client that counted down smoothly here would
+    /// disagree with the reference by minutes.
+    ///
+    /// **One stated divergence.** The reference composes this as `"%s\n%s"` with an empty first
+    /// half — the status leg it means to print is suppressed by a guard sixteen instructions
+    /// earlier — so its dialog carries a leading blank line for two of the three states and not the
+    /// third. That is a defect of an empty string, not a layout, and it is not reproduced.
+    pub(crate) fn text(
+        &self,
+        now_ms: u32,
+        realm: Option<&str>,
+        strings: &crate::glue_strings::GlueStrings,
+    ) -> String {
+        let position = self.position().unwrap_or(0);
+        let named = realm.filter(|r| !r.is_empty());
+
+        // `remaining` is what is left of the estimate that was current when the last packet landed.
+        let remaining = self.estimate_ms(now_ms).and_then(|est| {
+            (est > 0).then(|| i64::from(self.tick_ms[0]) + est - i64::from(now_ms))
+        });
+
+        let (key, fallback) = match remaining {
+            None => (
+                "QUEUE_NAME_TIME_LEFT_UNKNOWN",
+                "%s is Full\nPosition in queue: %d\nEstimated time: Calculating...",
+            ),
+            Some(ms) if ms < MINUTE_MS => (
+                "QUEUE_NAME_TIME_LEFT_SECONDS",
+                "%s is Full\nPosition in queue: %d\nEstimated time: < 1 minute",
+            ),
+            Some(_) => (
+                "QUEUE_NAME_TIME_LEFT",
+                "%s is Full\nPosition in queue: %d\nEstimated time: %d min",
+            ),
+        };
+        let (key, fallback) = match named {
+            Some(_) => (key, fallback),
+            // The nameless twin of whichever leg we picked — same text without the leading `%s`.
+            None => match remaining {
+                None => (
+                    "QUEUE_TIME_LEFT_UNKNOWN",
+                    "Realm is Full\nPosition in queue: %d\nEstimated time: Calculating...",
+                ),
+                Some(ms) if ms < MINUTE_MS => (
+                    "QUEUE_TIME_LEFT_SECONDS",
+                    "Realm is Full\nPosition in queue: %d\nEstimated time: < 1 minute",
+                ),
+                Some(_) => (
+                    "QUEUE_TIME_LEFT",
+                    "Realm is Full\nPosition in queue: %d\nEstimated time: %d min",
+                ),
+            },
+        };
+
+        let mut out = strings.text(key, fallback).to_string();
+        if let Some(realm) = named {
+            out = out.replacen("%s", realm, 1);
+        }
+        out = out.replacen("%d", &position.to_string(), 1);
+        if let Some(ms) = remaining.filter(|ms| *ms >= MINUTE_MS) {
+            out = out.replacen("%d", &(ms / MINUTE_MS).to_string(), 1);
+        }
+        out
+    }
+}
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+mod tests {
+    use super::*;
+    use crate::glue_strings::GlueStrings;
+
+    /// Feed packets `step_ms` apart. Returns the ring and **the instant the last one landed**,
+    /// which is the natural moment to read the estimate at.
+    fn ring_of(places: &[u32], step_ms: u32) -> (QueueEstimate, u32) {
+        let mut q = QueueEstimate::default();
+        let mut now = 1_000; // never 0 — that is the "no sample yet" sentinel
+        let mut last = now;
+        for &p in places {
+            q.sample(p, now);
+            last = now;
+            now += step_ms;
+        }
+        (q, last)
+    }
+
+    /// No estimate until the ring is full — the reference's `tick[7] != 0` precondition.
+    #[test]
+    fn an_estimate_needs_eight_samples() {
+        for n in 1..SAMPLES {
+            let places: Vec<u32> = (0..n as u32).map(|i| 100 - i).collect();
+            let (q, last) = ring_of(&places, 1_000);
+            assert_eq!(q.estimate_ms(last), None, "{n} samples is not enough");
+        }
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93], 1_000);
+        assert!(q.estimate_ms(last).is_some(), "eight is");
+    }
+
+    /// A queue that has not moved yields nothing rather than an infinite wait.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_stalled_queue_has_no_estimate() {
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[50; SAMPLES], 1_000);
+        assert_eq!(
+            q.estimate_ms(last),
+            None,
+            "it has not moved, so nothing divides"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// **A repeat stops shifting the ring once it is full** — the reference's own guard, and what
+    /// stops a server restating one position from flushing the history the estimate is made of.
+    ///
+    /// The guard is `newPos == pos[0] && tick[7] != 0`, so while the ring is still filling a repeat
+    /// DOES shift; only once the oldest slot is stamped does a repeat become a restamp.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_repeated_position_restamps_rather_than_shifting() {
+        let (mut q, last) = ring_of(&[50; SAMPLES], 1_000);
+        let oldest = q.tick_ms[SAMPLES - 1];
+        assert_ne!(
+            oldest, 0,
+            "eight packets fill the ring even when they repeat"
+        );
+
+        q.sample(50, last + 5_000);
+        assert_eq!(
+            q.tick_ms[SAMPLES - 1],
+            oldest,
+            "a repeat past a full ring must not push the oldest sample out",
+        );
+        assert_eq!(q.tick_ms[0], last + 5_000, "but it does restamp the newest");
+    }
+
+    /// Seven moves of one place, a second apart, read as the eighth lands: 7 000 ms over 7 places
+    /// is 1 000 ms each, and 93 are still ahead → 93 000 ms.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_estimate_is_per_place_times_places_left() {
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93], 1_000);
+        assert_eq!(q.estimate_ms(last), Some(93_000));
+    }
+
+    /// **Divide before multiply**, and a fixture where the two orders actually disagree: 7 places
+    /// over 10 000 ms is 1 428 ms each once truncated, times 93. Multiplying first would keep the
+    /// remainder and land on a different minute at the boundary.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_estimate_divides_before_it_multiplies() {
+        let mut q = QueueEstimate::default();
+        for (i, p) in [100u32, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93].into_iter().enumerate() {
+            q.sample(p, 1_000 + (10_000 * i as u32) / 7);
+        }
+        let last = 1_000 + 10_000;
+        let elapsed = i64::from(last - 1_000);
+        assert_eq!(q.estimate_ms(last), Some((elapsed / 7) * 93));
+        assert_ne!(
+            (elapsed / 7) * 93,
+            elapsed * 93 / 7,
+            "this fixture must actually distinguish the two orders",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// **Waiting makes the estimate go UP, not down** — surprising, verified, and the reference's.
+    ///
+    /// The estimate is recomputed every frame from a *growing* elapsed against a divisor fixed by
+    /// the last eight packets, so while the queue is silent the per-place figure inflates. What is
+    /// displayed is `tick[0] + estimate - now`, whose slope is `places_left / places_moved - 1` —
+    /// positive whenever more people are ahead of you than the ring saw move, which is the normal
+    /// case. So a stalled queue's "estimated time" climbs until the next packet re-anchors it.
+    ///
+    /// Not reproduced as a *bug fix*: this is what the reference puts on screen, and a client that
+    /// counted down smoothly here would disagree with it by minutes.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_silent_queue_inflates_its_own_estimate() {
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93], 1_000);
+        let at_packet = q.estimate_ms(last).unwrap();
+        let much_later = q.estimate_ms(last + 40_000).unwrap();
+        assert!(
+            much_later > at_packet,
+            "elapsed grows while the divisor does not: {at_packet} -> {much_later}",
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The display legs: Calculating before the ring fills, then a minutes figure.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_text_walks_calculating_then_minutes() {
+        let strings = GlueStrings::default();
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[100, 99, 98], 1_000);
+        let calculating = q.text(last, Some("Benilla"), &strings);
+        assert!(calculating.starts_with("Benilla is Full"), "{calculating}");
+        assert!(
+            calculating.contains("Position in queue: 98"),
+            "{calculating}"
+        );
+        assert!(calculating.contains("Calculating..."), "{calculating}");
+
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[100, 99, 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93], 1_000);
+        let minutes = q.text(last, Some("Benilla"), &strings);
+        assert!(minutes.contains("Position in queue: 93"), "{minutes}");
+        assert!(minutes.contains("1 min"), "{minutes}");
+        assert!(!minutes.contains("Calculating"), "{minutes}");
+    }
+
+    /// The `< 1 minute` leg, which needs the whole remaining wait under a minute — i.e. few enough
+    /// people ahead that the inflation above cannot carry it over the threshold.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_short_wait_reads_under_a_minute() {
+        let strings = GlueStrings::default();
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1], 1_000);
+        let text = q.text(last, Some("Benilla"), &strings);
+        assert!(text.contains("Position in queue: 1"), "{text}");
+        assert!(text.contains("< 1 minute"), "{text}");
+    }
+
+    /// The nameless twin renders when no realm name is known — and neither form leaves a
+    /// placeholder behind.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_nameless_realm_uses_the_plain_form() {
+        let strings = GlueStrings::default();
+        let (q, last) = ring_of(&[100, 99, 98], 1_000);
+        let plain = q.text(last, None, &strings);
+        assert!(plain.starts_with("Realm is Full"), "{plain}");
+        assert!(!plain.contains("%s") && !plain.contains("%d"), "{plain}");
+        let named = q.text(last, Some("Benilla"), &strings);
+        assert!(!named.contains("%s") && !named.contains("%d"), "{named}");
+    }
+}
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/login/screen.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/login/screen.rs
index eeeb0fc1..69bb40ae 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/login/screen.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/login/screen.rs
@@ -22,8 +22,8 @@ use crate::char_select::wow_font;
 use crate::glue::art::{GlueArt, BACKDROP, GOLD};
 use crate::glue::backdrop::{backdrop_border, tiled_bg_node};
 use crate::glue::widgets::{
-    abs, glue_button, glue_edit_box, outlined_text, overlay, paint_glue_field, ArtSwap,
-    GlueBtnKind, GlueFieldPart, GlueText, Hilight,
+    abs, glue_button, glue_edit_box, outlined_text, outlined_text_centered, overlay,
+    paint_glue_field, ArtSwap, GlueBtnKind, GlueFieldPart, GlueText, Hilight,
 };
 use crate::glue_strings::GlueStrings;
 use crate::portrait::{PortraitImages, PortraitSource, GLUE_SLOT};
@@ -748,8 +748,11 @@ pub(super) fn spawn_dialog(
                         overlay(),
                     ));
                 }
-                // The message (GlueFontNormalLarge 18 at TOP (0,−16), width 440, wrapping).
-                outlined_text(
+                // The message (GlueFontNormalLarge 18 at TOP (0,−16), width 440, wrapping) —
+                // **centred**, which `GlueDialogText` gets by omitting `justifyH` (a FontString's
+                // default is CENTER; every other wrapped glue string in the shipped XML asks for
+                // LEFT explicitly). It read left-aligned until the director's eye caught it.
+                outlined_text_centered(
                     b,
                     Node {
                         width: px(440.0),
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/net.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/net.rs
index e1b3205e..520c7890 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/net.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/net.rs
@@ -121,6 +121,7 @@ impl Plugin for NetPlugin {
             .add_message::<ServerSaidMessage>()
             .add_message::<LoggedOutMessage>()
             .add_message::<LoginStageMessage>()
+            .add_message::<LoginQueuedMessage>()
             .add_message::<LoginFailedMessage>()
             .add_message::<DisconnectedMessage>()
             .add_systems(
@@ -2113,6 +2114,15 @@ pub(crate) struct LoginStageMessage {
     pub(crate) stage: benilla_protocol::LoginStage,
 }
 
+/// We are **queued** for a full realm (decision 1681) — one per `AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE` packet, while
+/// the world handshake is still parked. Not a failure: the attempt is live and the queue ends
+/// either with a roster or with a real failure.
+#[derive(Message, Clone)]
+pub(crate) struct LoginQueuedMessage {
+    pub(crate) position: Option<u32>,
+    pub(crate) realm: Option<String>,
+}
+
 /// The session ended (socket death, logout's teardown edge) — bridged from the Net drain's
 /// `Disconnected` arm. [`crate::login`]'s policy reads it as "the IO thread is back at its
 /// pre-logon park"; whether anything re-authenticates is [`Self::ends_the_session`]'s answer.
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply.rs
index a0c1e073..7bfa9cc2 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply.rs
@@ -121,6 +121,8 @@ pub(super) fn apply_net_updates(
         MessageWriter<super::MoveModeMessage>,
         // The login screen's dialog + reconnect-policy feed (decision 0539).
         MessageWriter<super::LoginStageMessage>,
+        // The login queue's position feed (decision 1681).
+        MessageWriter<super::LoginQueuedMessage>,
         MessageWriter<super::LoginFailedMessage>,
         MessageWriter<super::DisconnectedMessage>,
         // The server's own answer to a GM dot-command, readable rather than only logged — the
@@ -279,7 +281,12 @@ pub(super) fn apply_net_updates(
         ResMut<crate::ui_cast::CastBarFeed>,
         ResMut<crate::pending_item_ops::PendingItemOps>,
         ResMut<crate::pending_item_ops::LockClearedByFailure>,
-        ResMut<crate::ui_trainer::TrainerErrors>,
+        // Nested pair (the tuple is at the ceiling): the two NPC-service windows' error queues,
+        // each drained onto its window's red line by its own feed.
+        (
+            ResMut<crate::ui_trainer::TrainerErrors>,
+            ResMut<crate::ui_stable::StableErrors>,
+        ),
         ResMut<crate::ui_cast::PendingCast>,
         // The cooldown store + the Spell.dbc catalog its wire laws read, and the live
         // auto-repeat state the bar's flash rides (decision 0137 phase 4).
@@ -439,6 +446,7 @@ pub(super) fn apply_net_updates(
         mut speed_changes,
         mut move_modes,
         mut login_stages,
+        mut login_queued,
         mut login_failures,
         mut disconnects,
         mut server_said,
@@ -474,6 +482,9 @@ pub(super) fn apply_net_updates(
     for ev in events.0.try_iter() {
         match ev {
             SessionEvent::LoginStage { stage } => session::login_stage(stage, &mut login_stages),
+            SessionEvent::LoginQueued { position, realm } => {
+                login_queued.write(crate::net::LoginQueuedMessage { position, realm });
+            }
             SessionEvent::LoginFailed {
                 refusal,
                 reason,
@@ -1623,16 +1634,19 @@ pub(super) fn apply_net_updates(
                 npc::trainer_buy_succeeded(trainer, spell_id, &mut trainer_open, &net_commands)
             }
             SessionEvent::TrainerBuyFailed { error, .. } => {
-                npc::trainer_buy_failed(error, &mut ui_actions.8)
+                npc::trainer_buy_failed(error, &mut ui_actions.8 .0)
             }
             SessionEvent::ListStabledPets {
                 npc,
                 num_stable_slots,
                 pets,
             } => npc::list_stabled_pets(npc, num_stable_slots, pets, &mut stable_open),
-            SessionEvent::StableResult { result } => {
-                npc::stable_result(result, &mut stable_open, &net_commands)
-            }
+            SessionEvent::StableResult { result } => npc::stable_result(
+                result,
+                &mut stable_open,
+                &mut ui_actions.8 .1,
+                &net_commands,
+            ),
             SessionEvent::TaxiNodesShown {
                 flightmaster,
                 nearest_node,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply/npc.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply/npc.rs
index 75ecf854..778aead6 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply/npc.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/net/apply/npc.rs
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ use crate::ui_bank::{BankErrors, BankOpen};
 use crate::ui_gossip::GossipState;
 use crate::ui_merchant::{MerchantErrors, MerchantOpen, MerchantRefusal};
 use crate::ui_quest::QuestGiver;
-use crate::ui_stable::StableOpen;
+use crate::ui_stable::{StableErrors, StableOpen};
 use crate::ui_taxi::TaxiState;
 use crate::ui_trainer::{TrainerErrors, TrainerOpen};
 
@@ -211,30 +211,56 @@ pub(super) fn list_stabled_pets(
     stable_open.open(npc, num_stable_slots, pets);
 }
 
-/// The answer to a stable verb (`SMSG_STABLE_RESULT`) — one byte, and the *whole* answer: no
-/// success carries an updated list (VERIFIED vmangos, every `HandleStable*` path ends in
-/// `SendStableResult` and nothing else). So a success **must** be followed by a re-request or the
-/// window would go on showing the pre-action arrangement — a pet that is now stabled still standing
-/// in slot 0. That re-request is forced by the server's behaviour, not a choice.
+/// The answer to a stable verb (`SMSG_STABLE_RESULT`) — one byte, and the client's whole response
+/// to it is a five-way jump table (wow-re `system/ui/scratch/stable-master-window.md` §5, VERIFIED
+/// off the raw remap/jump bytes at `0x4cadac`/`0x4cad98`; decision 1677):
 ///
-/// The refusal half is where the client's own behaviour is still open (decision 1676): benilla
-/// surfaces `ERR_MONEY` on the error line and swallows the generic `ERR_STABLE`, which carries no
-/// reason at all — dead player, out of range, no free bought slot, untameable, and "you already
-/// have a pet" are one indistinguishable code. What the reference does with each is a wow-re carve
-/// item; showing a wrong-but-confident sentence for a code that means five things would be worse
-/// than the silence.
-pub(super) fn stable_result(result: u8, stable_open: &mut StableOpen, net_commands: &NetCommands) {
+/// | code | what the client does |
+/// |---|---|
+/// | 1 | `DisplayError(0x25)` = **`ERR_NOT_ENOUGH_MONEY`** — the only code that says anything |
+/// | 2–7 | **absolutely nothing** — vmangos's catch-all `STABLE_ERR_STABLE = 6` included |
+/// | 8, 9 | re-request the list |
+/// | 10 | **`inc` the local purchased-slot count**, then re-request |
+/// | 11 | fire `PET_STABLE_UPDATE` (no vmangos counterpart — nothing in 1.12 sends it) |
+/// | 0, ≥12 | nothing |
+///
+/// The re-request is not a benilla convenience: no success carries an updated list, so without it
+/// the window would go on showing the pre-action arrangement.
+///
+/// **Code 10's local increment happens BEFORE the guid test**, so a buy-slot success arriving with
+/// no stable master open still bumps the count without refreshing. That ordering is reproduced
+/// deliberately — it is what makes the purchase row correct if the window is reopened, and the
+/// alternative would be to invent a tidier client than the one being reimplemented.
+pub(super) fn stable_result(
+    result: u8,
+    stable_open: &mut StableOpen,
+    errors: &mut StableErrors,
+    net_commands: &NetCommands,
+) {
     use benilla_protocol::messages::stable_result as code;
-    let Some(npc) = stable_open.npc else {
-        debug!("net: stable result {result} with no open stable — ignored");
-        return;
-    };
+    // Ahead of the guid test, exactly as `0x4cacf3` sits ahead of `0x4cad05`.
+    if result == code::SUCCESS_BUY_SLOT {
+        stable_open.num_stable_slots = stable_open.num_stable_slots.saturating_add(1);
+    }
     match result {
+        // The one code that speaks. Its text is the reference's own `GlobalStrings` value for
+        // `ERR_NOT_ENOUGH_MONEY`, reached through `DisplayError` row 0x25.
+        code::ERR_MONEY => {
+            debug!("net: stable purchase refused — not enough money");
+            errors.0.push("You don't have enough money.".to_string());
+        }
         code::SUCCESS_STABLE | code::SUCCESS_UNSTABLE | code::SUCCESS_BUY_SLOT => {
+            let Some(npc) = stable_open.npc else {
+                debug!("net: stable success {result} with no open stable — no re-list");
+                return;
+            };
             debug!("net: stable action succeeded (code {result}) — re-listing");
             let _ = net_commands.0.send(ClientCommand::ListStabledPets { npc });
         }
-        _ => debug!("net: stable action refused (code {result})"),
+        // Codes 2–7 (the generic ERR_STABLE among them), 0 and ≥12: the client shows NOTHING.
+        // Not an omission — the catch-all is one code for six causes, and the reference declines to
+        // guess which.
+        _ => debug!("net: stable result {result} — no client-visible effect"),
     }
 }
 
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/net/io.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/net/io.rs
index 1cd8e6dd..fc765dfb 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/net/io.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/net/io.rs
@@ -329,7 +329,26 @@ fn run(
         .unwrap_or_else(|| format!("{}:{}", host_port(&req.host, WORLD_PORT).0, WORLD_PORT));
 
     stage(LoginStage::Handshaking);
-    let mut session = match WorldSession::connect(&world_addr, &req.user, logon.session_key) {
+    // The realm we are dialing, for the queue dialog to name — the roster that would otherwise
+    // carry it is on the far side of the queue, which is exactly when the name is wanted.
+    let realm_name = realm.as_ref().map(|r| r.name.clone());
+    // Report our place, and keep waiting only while the attempt is still wanted. A queue can
+    // last minutes, so unlike every other handshake stage it has to test the abandon generation
+    // itself — otherwise a Cancel would close the dialog while this thread quietly held its place
+    // in line and then walked into the world anyway.
+    let mut on_queue = |position: Option<u32>| {
+        let _ = events_tx.send(SessionEvent::LoginQueued {
+            position,
+            realm: realm_name.clone(),
+        });
+        !canceled()
+    };
+    let mut session = match WorldSession::connect_queued(
+        &world_addr,
+        &req.user,
+        logon.session_key,
+        &mut on_queue,
+    ) {
         Ok(s) => s,
         Err(e) => {
             if canceled() {
@@ -351,6 +370,11 @@ fn run(
             return fail(None, format!("world handshake with {world_addr}: {e:#}"));
         }
     };
+    // The handshake can now block for minutes (the queue), so a cancel that landed while it did
+    // must not be overtaken by the roster it is about to fetch.
+    if canceled() {
+        return Ok(Cycle::Repark);
+    }
 
     // The roster (creating a starter character on a fresh account so PLAYER_LOGIN has a target).
     // Failures here are still pre-roster: surface as LoginFailed, re-park. (An immediately-run
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/sound/ui.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/sound/ui.rs
index 55deb23d..c6959766 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/sound/ui.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/sound/ui.rs
@@ -213,7 +213,10 @@ fn play_item_gesture_sounds(
         CursorPayload::Spell(_)
         | CursorPayload::Action(_)
         | CursorPayload::Macro(_)
-        | CursorPayload::PetAction(_) => {
+        | CursorPayload::PetAction(_)
+        // Mode 10 joins them: the stabled-pet grab `0x495010` calls the same generic path and
+        // names no per-item kit (decision 1677).
+        | CursorPayload::StablePet(_) => {
             let kit_id = match gesture {
                 CursorGesture::Gain => INTERFACESOUND_CURSORGRABOBJECT,
                 CursorGesture::Loss => INTERFACESOUND_CURSORDROPOBJECT,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/target/click.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/target/click.rs
index ecefa8cb..35bf738c 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/target/click.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/target/click.rs
@@ -707,6 +707,24 @@ fn interact_command(
         CursorKind::Buy if npc_flags & cursor_mode::npc_flags::AUCTIONEER != 0 => {
             Some(ClientCommand::AuctionHello { auctioneer: guid })
         }
+        // A stable master asks for its own pet list — the client sends `MSG_LIST_STABLED_PETS`
+        // ITSELF on the bit-13 interact leg (`0x5f05a1` → `0x5f05bc` → `0x5e02a0`, whose sole
+        // caller that is), and the window opens when the reply lands. This corrects decision
+        // 1676's "server-initiated, off the gossip option": that is how it opens against vmangos
+        // (`GOSSIP_OPTION_STABLEPET` → `SendStablePet`), but it is not what the client does.
+        //
+        // Gated on the gossip bit being absent, which is the honest bound: the cursor ladder above
+        // is first-match-wins and reaches its STABLEMASTER leg only when no lower service bit is
+        // set, but the reference's *interaction* dispatcher is a different function whose own
+        // ordering the carve did not enumerate. A stable master carrying a gossip menu therefore
+        // keeps the menu — where its own stable option asks the server for the same list — and one
+        // without a menu takes this leg, which is the case the bare bit-13 test exists for.
+        CursorKind::Speak
+            if npc_flags & cursor_mode::npc_flags::STABLEMASTER != 0
+                && npc_flags & cursor_mode::npc_flags::GOSSIP == 0 =>
+        {
+            Some(ClientCommand::ListStabledPets { npc: guid })
+        }
         CursorKind::Speak | CursorKind::Buy | CursorKind::Trainer | CursorKind::Interact => {
             Some(ClientCommand::GossipHello { guid })
         }
@@ -981,6 +999,32 @@ mod tests {
         ));
     }
 
+    /// The stable-master split (decision 1677): the client asks for the pet list **itself** on the
+    /// bit-13 interact leg — it is not purely server-initiated, which is what 1676 had. A stable
+    /// master carrying a gossip menu keeps the menu, whose own stable option asks the server for
+    /// the same list; one without a menu takes this leg.
+    #[test]
+    fn interact_routes_a_menuless_stable_master_to_the_pet_list() {
+        use cursor_mode::CursorKind;
+        assert!(matches!(
+            interact_command(
+                CursorKind::Speak,
+                0x64,
+                cursor_mode::npc_flags::STABLEMASTER
+            ),
+            Some(ClientCommand::ListStabledPets { npc: 0x64 })
+        ));
+        // With a gossip menu, the universal hello still wins — the menu carries the stable option.
+        assert!(matches!(
+            interact_command(
+                CursorKind::Speak,
+                0x64,
+                cursor_mode::npc_flags::STABLEMASTER | cursor_mode::npc_flags::GOSSIP
+            ),
+            Some(ClientCommand::GossipHello { guid: 0x64 })
+        ));
+    }
+
     /// The banker split (decision 0604): Buy(3) is banker OR auctioneer — the BANKER flag routes
     /// the direct `CMSG_BANKER_ACTIVATE`, its absence falls to the auctioneer fork above. A
     /// gossip-flagged banker never reaches this fork (the low-bit-first ladder classified Speak).
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs
index ddbdfb6c..f23292d2 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_script/extract/mod.rs
@@ -1160,6 +1160,7 @@ pub(super) fn drive_script(
             CursorPayload::Action(a) => a.texture,
             CursorPayload::Macro(m) => m.texture,
             CursorPayload::PetAction(p) => p.texture,
+            CursorPayload::StablePet(p) => Some(p.texture),
         });
         if let (Some(texture), Some(pos)) = (texture, window.cursor_position()) {
             if let Some(handle) = assets
diff --git a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_stable.rs b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_stable.rs
index a1ea370a..416cb575 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_stable.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-app/src/ui_stable.rs
@@ -36,7 +36,9 @@
 use benilla_protocol::messages::StabledPet;
 use bevy::prelude::*;
 
-use benilla_ui::script::{StableIntent, StablePetSlot, StableState, UiScript, NUM_STABLE_SLOTS};
+use benilla_ui::script::{
+    ScriptValue, StableIntent, StablePetSlot, StableState, UiScript, NUM_STABLE_SLOTS,
+};
 
 use crate::names::NameCache;
 use crate::net::{ClientCommand, NetCommands};
@@ -48,17 +50,19 @@ pub(crate) struct UiStablePlugin;
 
 impl Plugin for UiStablePlugin {
     fn build(&self, app: &mut App) {
-        app.init_resource::<StableOpen>().add_systems(
-            Update,
-            (
-                // Range-close before the feed so the clear becomes PET_STABLE_CLOSED the same
-                // frame; push before the input pass so an open/close is on screen the same frame;
-                // drain after it (the trainer/merchant/gossip ordering).
-                close_npc_session_out_of_range::<StableOpen>.before(feed_stable),
-                feed_stable.before(UiInput),
-                drain_stable.after(UiInput),
-            ),
-        );
+        app.init_resource::<StableOpen>()
+            .init_resource::<StableErrors>()
+            .add_systems(
+                Update,
+                (
+                    // Range-close before the feed so the clear becomes PET_STABLE_CLOSED the same
+                    // frame; push before the input pass so an open/close is on screen the same frame;
+                    // drain after it (the trainer/merchant/gossip ordering).
+                    close_npc_session_out_of_range::<StableOpen>.before(feed_stable),
+                    feed_stable.before(UiInput),
+                    drain_stable.after(UiInput),
+                ),
+            );
     }
 }
 
@@ -74,6 +78,14 @@ pub(crate) struct StableOpen {
     pub(crate) num_stable_slots: u8,
     /// The wire rows, each already carrying its rebased client slot index.
     pub(crate) pets: Vec<StabledPet>,
+    /// A list packet has landed and the feed has not yet turned it into `PET_STABLE_SHOW`.
+    ///
+    /// The distinction this latch draws is the carve's: `PET_STABLE_SHOW` fires **unconditionally
+    /// at the tail of every `MSG_LIST_STABLED_PETS` handler** (`0x4cac9b`) — every list, not just
+    /// the first — while `PET_STABLE_UPDATE`/`_PADERDOLL` fire from the **creature-cache
+    /// callbacks** (`0x4cb3bf`, `0x4cba5f`), i.e. exactly when a late template answer fills a row
+    /// in. Our two-step resolve has the same two edges, so the events land on the same causes.
+    pub(crate) fresh_list: bool,
 }
 
 impl StableOpen {
@@ -82,12 +94,14 @@ impl StableOpen {
         self.npc = Some(npc);
         self.num_stable_slots = num_stable_slots;
         self.pets = pets;
+        self.fresh_list = true;
     }
 
     pub(crate) fn clear(&mut self) {
         self.npc = None;
         self.num_stable_slots = 0;
         self.pets.clear();
+        self.fresh_list = false;
     }
 }
 
@@ -161,12 +175,14 @@ fn resolve_pet(
 }
 
 /// Build the Lua-facing snapshot from [`StableOpen`] — `None` when no stable is open.
+#[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)]
 fn snapshot(
     open: &StableOpen,
     names: &mut NameCache,
     families: Option<&PetFamilyTables>,
     stats: Option<&PetStatTables>,
     next_slot_cost: u32,
+    has_live_pet: bool,
     commands: &NetCommands,
 ) -> Option<StableState> {
     open.npc?;
@@ -188,6 +204,7 @@ fn snapshot(
         num_stable_slots: u32::from(open.num_stable_slots),
         next_slot_cost,
         slots,
+        has_live_pet,
     })
 }
 
@@ -196,12 +213,15 @@ fn snapshot(
 #[allow(clippy::too_many_arguments)] // the resolver's full catalog set
 fn feed_stable(
     script: Option<NonSendMut<UiScript>>,
-    open: Res<StableOpen>,
+    // ResMut only to consume the fresh-list latch; the feed never authors stable content.
+    mut open: ResMut<StableOpen>,
+    bar: Res<crate::ui_pet::PetBar>,
     families: Option<Res<PetFamilyTables>>,
     stats: Option<Res<PetStatTables>>,
     prices: Option<Res<StableSlotPrices>>,
     commands: Res<NetCommands>,
     mut names: ResMut<NameCache>,
+    mut errors: ResMut<StableErrors>,
     mut last: Local<crate::ui_script::VmMemo<Option<StableState>>>,
     mut last_npc: Local<crate::ui_script::VmMemo<Option<u64>>>,
 ) {
@@ -210,6 +230,10 @@ fn feed_stable(
     };
     let last = last.get(&script);
     let last_npc = last_npc.get(&script);
+    // Refusals surface as the client's red error line (the trainer/merchant path's exact shape).
+    for text in errors.0.drain(..) {
+        script.fire_event("UI_ERROR_MESSAGE", vec![ScriptValue::Str(text)]);
+    }
 
     // The next slot's price is the client's own job (the wire never sends it) — `StableSlotPrices`
     // row `purchased + 1`, the bank's arrangement. `0` past the table, a state in which the
@@ -219,16 +243,21 @@ fn feed_stable(
         .and_then(|p| p.0.next_slot_price(open.num_stable_slots))
         .unwrap_or(0);
 
+    // The client's own `[0xb714a0]|[0xb714a4]` test — a LIVE pet guid, which a dismissed pet does
+    // not have even though the server still sends its slot-0 row.
+    let has_live_pet = bar.spells.pet_guid != 0;
     let fresh = snapshot(
         &open,
         &mut names,
         families.as_deref(),
         stats.as_deref(),
         next_slot_cost,
+        has_live_pet,
         &commands,
     );
     let switched = npc_switched(*last_npc, open.npc);
-    if fresh == *last && !switched {
+    let fresh_list = std::mem::take(&mut open.fresh_list);
+    if fresh == *last && !switched && !fresh_list {
         return;
     }
     // PUSH before firing: `fire_event` dispatches the Lua handlers synchronously, so the snapshot
@@ -242,17 +271,23 @@ fn feed_stable(
         script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_CLOSED", vec![]);
         script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_SHOW", vec![]);
         let _ = script.take_stable_close();
+    } else if fresh_list && fresh.is_some() {
+        // **Every list fires SHOW**, not just the first (`0x4cac9b` is unconditional). The window
+        // is already visible for a refresh, and the reference's own `ShowUIPanel` early-return is
+        // what makes that idempotent rather than a re-open.
+        script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_SHOW", vec![]);
     } else {
         match (&*last, &fresh) {
-            (None, Some(_)) => script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_SHOW", vec![]),
-            // The paperdoll event rides the content change: the reference repaints the model pane
-            // from it, and a stabled pet's icon/family arriving late is exactly when it must.
+            // A content change with no new list is a late creature-query answer filling a row in —
+            // the client's cache-callback edge, and the only thing those callbacks fire.
             (Some(_), Some(_)) => {
                 script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_UPDATE", vec![]);
                 script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_UPDATE_PAPERDOLL", vec![]);
             }
             (Some(_), None) => script.fire_event("PET_STABLE_CLOSED", vec![]),
-            (None, None) => {}
+            // A first snapshot with no list latch cannot happen (the latch is set by the packet
+            // that creates it); a None→None is nothing at all.
+            (None, _) => {}
         }
     }
     *last = fresh;
@@ -292,6 +327,11 @@ fn drain_stable(
     }
 }
 
+/// Stable refusals staged for the feed to surface on the window's error line — only ever
+/// `ERR_NOT_ENOUGH_MONEY`, the single code the client speaks for (decision 1677).
+#[derive(Resource, Default)]
+pub(crate) struct StableErrors(pub(crate) Vec<String>);
+
 /// `StableSlotPrices.dbc`, loaded once at startup — the purchase row's price oracle. A missing
 /// table quotes `0`, which is the same shape as "past the ladder": degraded, never wrong.
 #[derive(Resource)]
diff --git a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/events.rs b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/events.rs
index 39b04efc..a7d0a3dd 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/events.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/events.rs
@@ -144,6 +144,15 @@ pub enum SessionEvent {
     /// A login attempt progressed to `stage` (decision 0539) — IO-thread-emitted, like
     /// [`Self::CharacterList`], never wire-decoded.
     LoginStage { stage: LoginStage },
+    /// **We are queued for a full realm** (`SMSG_AUTH_RESPONSE(AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE)`) — a wait, not
+    /// an outcome. Emitted once per queue packet while the world handshake is parked; the attempt
+    /// is still live and ends normally with a roster (admitted) or a failure. `position` is `None`
+    /// when the packet carried no readable one. `realm` is the realm we are queued for, so the
+    /// screen can name it without waiting for the roster that is on the far side of the queue.
+    LoginQueued {
+        position: Option<u32>,
+        realm: Option<String>,
+    },
     /// A login attempt failed before the roster (decision 0539): `code` is the server's auth
     /// result byte ([`crate::auth::AuthReject`]) when the server *refused* us, `None` for a
     /// transport failure (dial/handshake error). The IO thread is re-parked pre-logon; the app
diff --git a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/packet.rs b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/packet.rs
index 80572d9e..2af2e50f 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/packet.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/packet.rs
@@ -80,6 +80,9 @@ pub enum ServerPacket {
     },
     AuthResponse {
         result: u8,
+        /// Our place in the login queue, when `result` is [`super::AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE`] — `None` for
+        /// every other result, and also for a queue packet whose body was too short to carry one.
+        queue_position: Option<u32>,
     },
     CharEnum {
         characters: Vec<Character>,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/parse.rs b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/parse.rs
index 7d4d3d89..5dfbab24 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/parse.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/messages/parse.rs
@@ -159,9 +159,42 @@ pub fn parse_server(opcode: u16, body: &[u8]) -> io::Result<ServerPacket> {
         opcode::SMSG_AUTH_CHALLENGE => ServerPacket::AuthChallenge {
             server_seed: read_u32_le(&mut r)?,
         },
-        opcode::SMSG_AUTH_RESPONSE => ServerPacket::AuthResponse {
-            result: read_u8(&mut r)?,
-        },
+        opcode::SMSG_AUTH_RESPONSE => {
+            // **The client's own grammar** (VERIFIED, handler `0x5b41b0`; wow-re
+            // `system/glue/scratch/login-failure-dialogs.md`):
+            //
+            //   u8 code
+            //   if (code == AUTH_OK || code == AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE) && remaining >= 5:
+            //       u32 billingTimeRemaining, u8 billingPlanFlags, u32 billingTimeRested
+            //   if code == AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE:
+            //       u32 position
+            //
+            // The client **branches on the remaining length**, which is what makes both shapes the
+            // mangos family sends parse correctly: the short `{u8, u32}` leaves 4 bytes (`4 < 5`,
+            // billing skipped, position at body offset 1) and the long
+            // `{u8, u32, u8, u32, u32}` leaves 13 (billing read, position at offset 10).
+            //
+            // The threshold is **5 guarding a 9-byte group** — not a size check, just "is there
+            // more here than a bare position?". Copied rather than tidied: a body of 6..=9 bytes
+            // hits it and mis-parses, and matching the client's mistakes is the point of a
+            // faithful parser.
+            //
+            // ONE DELIBERATE DIVERGENCE: where a truncated body leaves the client's position
+            // *unwritten* — silently redisplaying the previous queue position from an
+            // uninitialised process-lifetime global — ours reports `None`. Rendering a stale
+            // position as current is a bug we decline to reproduce.
+            let result = read_u8(&mut r)?;
+            let queued = result == super::AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE;
+            if (result == super::AUTH_OK || queued) && r.len() >= 5 {
+                let _billing_time_remaining = read_u32_le(&mut r)?;
+                let _billing_plan_flags = read_u8(&mut r)?;
+                let _billing_time_rested = read_u32_le(&mut r)?;
+            }
+            ServerPacket::AuthResponse {
+                result,
+                queue_position: queued.then(|| read_u32_le(&mut r).ok()).flatten(),
+            }
+        }
         opcode::SMSG_CHAR_ENUM => {
             let count = read_u8(&mut r)?;
             let mut characters = Vec::with_capacity(count as usize);
diff --git a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/world/session.rs b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/world/session.rs
index 17deaa7f..3f889b5c 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-protocol/src/world/session.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-protocol/src/world/session.rs
@@ -16,6 +16,16 @@ use super::{recv_packet, send_packet};
 /// Generous — a local vmangos answers in milliseconds; this only bounds the pathological stall.
 const HANDSHAKE_READ_TIMEOUT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(10);
 
+/// The read bound while **queued** — a different question from the handshake's.
+///
+/// [`HANDSHAKE_READ_TIMEOUT`] is 10 s because every handshake step should answer promptly. Sitting
+/// in a login queue is the one step that should not: the server speaks when our place moves, which
+/// on a full realm can be minutes apart. Keeping the handshake bound would abort every queue that
+/// mattered. The real client bounds this not at all (it is event-driven and simply waits), but an
+/// unbounded blocking read here would make a server that dies mid-queue indistinguishable from a
+/// long wait, so the wait is generous rather than infinite.
+const QUEUE_READ_TIMEOUT: std::time::Duration = std::time::Duration::from_secs(300);
+
 /// The server requires Warden, which benilla does not implement — raised by
 /// [`WorldSession::connect`] and recoverable through the `anyhow` chain with
 /// `err.downcast_ref::<WardenRequired>()`, so the login screen can say so plainly.
@@ -91,6 +101,29 @@ impl WorldSession {
         username: &str,
         session_key: [u8; SESSION_KEY_LENGTH],
     ) -> Result<Self> {
+        Self::connect_queued(addr, username, session_key, &mut |_| true)
+    }
+
+    /// [`Self::connect`], reporting our place in the **login queue** as it moves.
+    ///
+    /// `on_queue` fires once per `AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE` the server sends — `None` when the packet
+    /// carried no readable position — and the call returns only once we are admitted (`AUTH_OK`),
+    /// refused, or the socket fails. The queue is a wait, not an outcome, so it is a callback
+    /// rather than a return value: the screen has to be able to show the position *while* the
+    /// handshake is still parked here.
+    ///
+    /// **Returning `false` abandons the queue** and fails the connect. That is the only way out of
+    /// a wait that can last minutes: every other stage of the handshake is bounded tightly enough
+    /// that a cancel is honoured at its next boundary, and a queue is not. Abandoning is checked
+    /// once per packet rather than per frame — the reference tears the socket down on the next
+    /// tick, which is finer-grained, but it costs a player at most one server update.
+    pub fn connect_queued(
+        addr: impl ToSocketAddrs,
+        username: &str,
+        session_key: [u8; SESSION_KEY_LENGTH],
+        on_queue: &mut dyn FnMut(Option<u32>) -> bool,
+    ) -> Result<Self> {
+        let mut queued = false;
         let mut stream = TcpStream::connect(addr).context("connecting to world server")?;
         // **Nagle off** (decision 0617). VERIFIED in the reference client: `0x5bca60` calls
         // `setsockopt(s, 6 /* IPPROTO_TCP */, 1 /* TCP_NODELAY */, &1, 4)` unconditionally on its game
@@ -158,8 +191,26 @@ impl WorldSession {
         // honest message at the login screen.
         loop {
             match session.recv()? {
-                ServerPacket::AuthResponse { result } if result == messages::AUTH_OK => break,
-                ServerPacket::AuthResponse { result } => {
+                ServerPacket::AuthResponse { result, .. } if result == messages::AUTH_OK => break,
+                // **Queued, not refused** — the realm is full and we keep our place in line. Report
+                // the position and go back to reading; the server re-sends as we move up and ends
+                // the wait with an `AUTH_OK`. Treating this as an ending (which it was until now)
+                // meant benilla could not log into a busy server at all.
+                ServerPacket::AuthResponse {
+                    result,
+                    queue_position,
+                } if result == messages::AUTH_WAIT_QUEUE => {
+                    if !queued {
+                        queued = true;
+                        session
+                            .set_read_timeout(Some(QUEUE_READ_TIMEOUT))
+                            .context("relaxing the read timeout for the login queue")?;
+                    }
+                    if !on_queue(queue_position) {
+                        bail!("login queue abandoned");
+                    }
+                }
+                ServerPacket::AuthResponse { result, .. } => {
                     return Err(WorldAuthReject { code: result }.into())
                 }
                 ServerPacket::Other {
@@ -168,6 +219,13 @@ impl WorldSession {
                 _ => continue,
             }
         }
+        // Admitted. The rest of the handshake is prompt again, so it gets the prompt bound back —
+        // leaving the queue's 300 s in place would make a stalled roster step look like a long wait.
+        if queued {
+            session
+                .set_read_timeout(Some(HANDSHAKE_READ_TIMEOUT))
+                .context("restoring the handshake read timeout after the queue")?;
+        }
 
         Ok(session)
     }
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/container.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/container.rs
index 24f85ff7..93753050 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/container.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/container.rs
@@ -338,7 +338,10 @@ fn pickup_container_item(model: &mut super::Model, bag: i64, slot: u32) -> bool
             other @ (CursorPayload::Spell(_)
             | CursorPayload::Action(_)
             | CursorPayload::Macro(_)
-            | CursorPayload::PetAction(_)),
+            | CursorPayload::PetAction(_)
+            // Mode 10 (decision 1677) — a stabled pet refuses a bag/doll slot exactly as the
+            // spell/action family does, and stays on the cursor for the stable window to take.
+            | CursorPayload::StablePet(_)),
         ) => {
             model.cursor = Some(other);
             false
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor.rs
index 3b3ea317..d1c95de7 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor.rs
@@ -44,9 +44,9 @@ pub const EQUIPMENT_BAG: i64 = -100;
 
 /// What the cursor carries — the client's payload-mode global [0xb4d900] as a typed enum
 /// (wow-re cursor-dragdrop-payload.md §1: 1 = live item, 3 = spell, **4 = pet action**, **8 =
-/// macro**; our Action arm is the client's bar-slot pickup; the money/preview arms stay unbuilt).
-/// One transition seam for every surface, so sounds, CURSOR_UPDATE, and lock display can't drift
-/// apart per window (decision 0216).
+/// macro**, **10 = stabled pet**; our Action arm is the client's bar-slot pickup; the
+/// money/preview arms stay unbuilt). One transition seam for every surface, so sounds,
+/// CURSOR_UPDATE, and lock display can't drift apart per window (decision 0216).
 #[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq)]
 pub enum CursorPayload {
     Item(CursorItem),
@@ -54,6 +54,34 @@ pub enum CursorPayload {
     Action(CursorAction),
     Macro(CursorMacro),
     PetAction(CursorPetAction),
+    /// A pet picked up from the stable window — **mode 10** (see [`CursorStablePet`]).
+    ///
+    /// Mode 10 was recorded as "class/talent ability (DBC)" until wow-re's stable-master carve
+    /// corrected it (`system/ui/scratch/stable-master-window.md` §9; decision 1677): `0x495020` is
+    /// the stabled-pet grab, `[0xb4d900] = 10` is written at exactly one site image-wide, and it is
+    /// inside it. benilla built the stable's drag frame-locally on the strength of the old note —
+    /// this variant is what puts it back on the shared cursor, so a stable pet dropped on the world
+    /// or another window clears through the same path as every other payload.
+    StablePet(CursorStablePet),
+}
+
+/// A pet held on the cursor from the stable window — payload **mode 10** (`0x495020`, the grab
+/// `0x495010`).
+///
+/// Mode 10 was recorded as "class/talent ability (DBC)" until wow-re's stable-master carve
+/// corrected it (`system/ui/scratch/stable-master-window.md` §9; decision 1677): `[0xb4d900] = 10`
+/// is written at exactly one site image-wide and it is inside the stabled-pet grab, whose id global
+/// `[0xb4e300]` holds a **stable index**, not a spell. benilla first built the stable's drag
+/// frame-locally on the strength of the old note; this puts it on the shared cursor.
+#[derive(Clone, Debug, PartialEq, Eq)]
+pub struct CursorStablePet {
+    /// The slot the grab came from, in the Lua index space `PickupStablePet` takes (`0` = the
+    /// summoned pet, `1..=2` a stable slot) — the client's `[0xb4e300]`.
+    pub slot: u8,
+    /// The family icon drawn at the mouse. Not merely decoration: a **non-empty icon path is the
+    /// grab's own gate** (`0x495010` refuses without one), so a payload of this shape always has
+    /// one.
+    pub texture: String,
 }
 
 /// The item currently held on the cursor (`PickupContainerItem`/`SplitContainerItem`/
@@ -269,7 +297,8 @@ pub(crate) fn clear_cursor(model: &mut Model) {
             CursorPayload::Spell(_)
             | CursorPayload::Action(_)
             | CursorPayload::Macro(_)
-            | CursorPayload::PetAction(_),
+            | CursorPayload::PetAction(_)
+            | CursorPayload::StablePet(_),
         ) => {
             queue_cursor_update(model);
         }
@@ -559,6 +588,12 @@ pub(super) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
                     Value::Nil,
                     Value::Nil,
                 )),
+                // Mode 10 — the stabled-pet grab (decision 1677). Reported as nothing: the
+                // reference's `GetCursorInfo` arms are not carved for it, the stable window never
+                // asks, and inventing a type string would put a guess where an addon could read it.
+                Some(CursorPayload::StablePet(_)) => {
+                    Ok((Value::Nil, Value::Nil, Value::Nil, Value::Nil))
+                }
                 None => Ok((Value::Nil, Value::Nil, Value::Nil, Value::Nil)),
             }
         })?,
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/bar.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/bar.rs
index 84984d1e..f01674b8 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/bar.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/bar.rs
@@ -123,6 +123,9 @@ pub(crate) fn place_action(model: &mut Model, id: u32) -> bool {
         // no `CMSG_SET_ACTION_BUTTON` encoding at all, so there is nothing to pack: the payload
         // goes straight back on the cursor, where the pet bar can still take it.
         CursorPayload::PetAction(_) => None,
+        // Mode 10 (decision 1677) — a stabled pet has no `CMSG_SET_ACTION_BUTTON` encoding either,
+        // so the action bar refuses it and it goes back on the cursor.
+        CursorPayload::StablePet(_) => None,
     };
     let Some((kind, action, texture)) = placeable else {
         model.cursor = Some(held);
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/doll.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/doll.rs
index 7d9d95b6..59d82817 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/doll.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/cursor/doll.rs
@@ -105,7 +105,10 @@ pub(super) fn pickup_inventory_item(model: &mut Model, id: u32) -> bool {
             other @ (CursorPayload::Spell(_)
             | CursorPayload::Action(_)
             | CursorPayload::Macro(_)
-            | CursorPayload::PetAction(_)),
+            | CursorPayload::PetAction(_)
+            // Mode 10 (decision 1677) — a stabled pet refuses a bag/doll slot exactly as the
+            // spell/action family does, and stays on the cursor for the stable window to take.
+            | CursorPayload::StablePet(_)),
         ) => {
             model.cursor = Some(other);
             false
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/mod.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/mod.rs
index 4e3f2a7d..6d1c49da 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/mod.rs
@@ -163,7 +163,7 @@ pub use container::{
 pub use craft::{CraftReagent, CraftRecipe, CraftState, CraftTooltip};
 pub use cursor::{
     CursorAction, CursorItem, CursorMacro, CursorPayload, CursorPetAction, CursorSpell,
-    EnchantConfirm, WorldPick, EQUIPMENT_BAG,
+    CursorStablePet, EnchantConfirm, WorldPick, EQUIPMENT_BAG,
 };
 pub use cvars::MultisampleFormat;
 pub use death::{DeathAction, DeathUiState};
diff --git a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/stable.rs b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/stable.rs
index 6d366cc8..c28f03fd 100644
--- a/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/stable.rs
+++ b/crates/benilla-ui/src/script/stable.rs
@@ -25,15 +25,31 @@
 //! is the icon of a pet that is *not* summoned: it comes from the creature query's display id,
 //! which is why that field stopped being discarded (decision 1676).
 //!
-//! ## The drag is FRAME-LOCAL, not the cursor
+//! ## The drag rides the cursor at mode 10
 //!
-//! `PickupStablePet` does **not** put anything on the global cursor. wow-re's exhaustive census of
-//! every write to the payload-mode global `[0xb4d900]`
-//! (`system/ui/scratch/cursor-dragdrop-payload.md` §1) enumerates the modes — item, money, spell,
-//! pet action, macro, the three displayId previews, class/talent ability — and **there is no
-//! stable-pet mode**. So a picked-up stable pet is state the stable window keeps to itself
-//! ([`StableModel::pickup`]), and no other surface can ever be holding one. Building this on
-//! [`super::cursor::CursorPayload`] would have invented a mode the client does not have.
+//! `PickupStablePet` puts the pet on the **global cursor** under payload mode 10
+//! ([`super::cursor::CursorPayload::StablePet`]), carrying the stable index the grab recorded.
+//!
+//! This corrects what benilla shipped first. The original build made the drag frame-local on the
+//! strength of wow-re's payload-mode table, which recorded mode 10 as "class/talent ability (DBC)"
+//! — so the census read as "there is no stable-pet mode". The stable-master carve found that
+//! `0x495020` **is** the stabled-pet grab and that `[0xb4d900] = 10` is written at exactly one site
+//! image-wide, inside it; wow-re corrected its own note in the same round
+//! (`system/ui/scratch/stable-master-window.md` §9). Decision 1677.
+//!
+//! ## Two return conventions that are the API, not details
+//!
+//! `ClickStablePet` returns **exactly one value, always**, and which one is keyed *solely* on
+//! whether the cursor was holding a pet — never on whether a packet went out:
+//!
+//! - **a plain click** (no payload) is a pure select and pushes the number `1.0` on all three of
+//!   its legs, so it is **always truthy** and the reference always repaints;
+//! - **a drop** pushes **nil** on every leg, including the ones that send a packet, so the
+//!   reference never repaints from the drop — the repaint comes from the server's next list.
+//!
+//! Getting this backwards is invisible in a test that only checks the packets and very visible in
+//! play: the window would repaint off a stale snapshot on every drag and skip the repaint on every
+//! click.
 
 use mlua::{Lua, MultiValue, Value};
 
@@ -83,6 +99,13 @@ pub struct StableState {
     pub next_slot_cost: u32,
     /// The three window slots; index `0` is the current pet.
     pub slots: [Option<StablePetSlot>; NUM_STABLE_SLOTS],
+    /// The player has a **live** pet out — the client's own `[0xb714a0]|[0xb714a4]` guid test, the
+    /// gate that forks a stabled pet's drop between swap and unstable (§6.2).
+    ///
+    /// **Deliberately not `slots[0].is_some()`.** A dismissed pet, or one left out of range, still
+    /// has a slot-0 row from the server's character-pet cache while the live guid is zero — so the
+    /// two disagree exactly there, and the client follows the guid.
+    pub has_live_pet: bool,
 }
 
 impl StableState {
@@ -113,26 +136,27 @@ pub enum StableIntent {
 #[derive(Debug)]
 pub(crate) struct StableModel {
     pub(crate) state: Option<StableState>,
-    /// The selected slot, or `-1` for none — `GetSelectedStablePet()`'s exact return, including its
-    /// sentinel, because the reference tests `== -1` directly (`PetStable.lua:44`).
+    /// The selection, held **as the client holds it** (`[0xb72250]`): `-1` = the summoned pet,
+    /// `0` = nothing, otherwise a **petNumber**.
+    ///
+    /// A petNumber rather than a slot index because that is what the binary stores, and it is what
+    /// makes a *stale* selection degrade correctly: `GetSelectedStablePet` searches the array for
+    /// the number and answers `-1` when the pet is no longer there (§7.1's fall-through).
     pub(crate) selected: i32,
-    /// The slot a drag started from, `None` when nothing is being dragged.
-    pub(crate) pickup: Option<u8>,
     pub(crate) intents: Vec<StableIntent>,
     pub(crate) close: bool,
 }
 
-/// **`selected` starts at `-1`, not at `0`** — a derived `Default` would make it `0`, and `0` is a
-/// real slot (the current pet). The reference reads the sentinel to decide whether to pick a slot
-/// for the player at all (`PetStable.lua:44-59`): defaulted to `0`, a freshly opened window would
-/// believe the current pet was already chosen and would never auto-select a stabled one for a
-/// hunter with no pet out — the window would open showing nothing, with no way to tell why.
+/// The zero state is the client's `0` — "nothing selected" — not `-1`, which is its encoding for
+/// *the summoned pet*. The Lua-facing `-1` that `PetStable.lua:44` tests is
+/// [`super::UiScript::stable_selection`]'s translation of this, not this field (§7.1).
 impl Default for StableModel {
     fn default() -> Self {
         Self {
             state: None,
-            selected: -1,
-            pickup: None,
+            // `0` is "nothing selected" in the client's own encoding — NOT `-1`, which means the
+            // summoned pet. The window's zero state is the reset `0x4caad3` writes.
+            selected: 0,
             intents: Vec::new(),
             close: false,
         }
@@ -142,17 +166,20 @@ impl Default for StableModel {
 impl super::UiScript {
     /// Push (or clear, with `None`) the open stable's snapshot.
     ///
-    /// **Clearing resets the window's transient state too** — selection and any half-finished drag.
-    /// A stale selection surviving a close would have the next stable master open on slot 2
-    /// highlighted before its list arrived. A *content* change deliberately does not reset it: the
-    /// list is re-requested after every successful action, and losing the selection on each one
-    /// would fight the player.
+    /// **Every list message clears the selection**, and that is the client's own behaviour
+    /// (`0x4cadf8` writes `[0xb72250] = 0` on each one), not a simplification. The first build kept
+    /// it across a refresh on the reasoning that benilla re-lists after every action and a reset
+    /// would "fight the player" — the carve says the reference re-lists on exactly the same
+    /// successes and clears every time. It does not fight anything, because `PetStable_Update`
+    /// immediately re-picks: the current pet if there is one, else the first occupied slot
+    /// (`PetStable.lua:44-59`). Keeping a selection across a list is what would be wrong — it can
+    /// name a pet the new list no longer contains.
     pub fn set_stable(&mut self, state: Option<StableState>) {
         let mut model = self.model_mut();
-        if state.is_none() {
-            model.stable.selected = -1;
-            model.stable.pickup = None;
-        }
+        model.stable.selected = 0;
+        // The held payload is NOT dropped here: closing the window clears only the stable-master
+        // guid in the reference (`0x4cae10`), and a picked-up pet lives on the shared cursor, whose
+        // own ClearCursor arms own it.
         model.stable.state = state;
     }
 
@@ -167,9 +194,37 @@ impl super::UiScript {
         std::mem::take(&mut self.model_mut().stable.close)
     }
 
-    /// The selected slot (`-1` = none) — what the app's booth points the model pane at.
+    /// `GetSelectedStablePet()`'s answer — **`0` = the summoned pet, `1..=2` a stable slot, `-1`
+    /// nothing** — translated out of the petNumber the model holds, exactly as `0x4cb800` does
+    /// (find the number in the array, `inc eax`; a number no longer present falls through to `-1`).
     pub fn stable_selection(&mut self) -> i32 {
-        self.model_mut().stable.selected
+        let model = self.model_mut();
+        selected_slot(&model.stable)
+    }
+}
+
+/// The petNumber→slot translation behind `GetSelectedStablePet` (§7.1).
+fn selected_slot(m: &StableModel) -> i32 {
+    match m.selected {
+        -1 => 0,
+        0 => -1,
+        pet_number => m
+            .state
+            .as_ref()
+            .and_then(|s| {
+                s.slots
+                    .iter()
+                    .enumerate()
+                    .skip(1)
+                    .find(|(_, slot)| {
+                        slot.as_ref()
+                            .is_some_and(|p| i64::from(p.pet_number) == i64::from(pet_number))
+                    })
+                    .map(|(i, _)| i as i32)
+            })
+            // A selection whose pet is gone after a refresh degrades to "nothing", never to a
+            // wrong slot — the loop's own fall-through at `0x4cb84c`.
+            .unwrap_or(-1),
     }
 }
 
@@ -180,29 +235,48 @@ fn slot_index(i: i64) -> Option<usize> {
     usize::try_from(i).ok().filter(|&i| i < NUM_STABLE_SLOTS)
 }
 
-/// Commit a drag from `from` onto `to`, returning the verb it becomes — the **one** place the
-/// stable's move law lives.
+/// Commit a drag from slot `from` onto slot `to` — the **one** place the stable's move law lives,
+/// now read off the binary (`ClickStablePet 0x4cb420` regime B, wow-re
+/// `system/ui/scratch/stable-master-window.md` §6.2; decision 1677).
 ///
-/// **INFERRED, pending the wow-re carve of `ClickStablePet 0x4ca…` (decision 1676).** The verb set
-/// is VERIFIED (vmangos's three handlers and their preconditions); what is *not* yet read off the
-/// binary is how the reference client picks among them. This mapping is derived from the server's
-/// own constraints, each arm justified:
+/// The first build inferred this from the server's constraint set and got the shape right and the
+/// **three edges wrong**. Each of them is a real case:
 ///
-/// - **current → a stable slot** is `CMSG_STABLE_PET`. The destination index is *discarded*: the
-///   wire carries no slot and `HandleStablePet` takes the first free one, so dropping on slot 2
-///   while slot 1 is empty puts the pet in slot 1. That is the server's behaviour, not a
-///   simplification here.
-/// - **a stable slot → current** is `Swap` when a pet is out and `Unstable` when none is
-///   (`HandleUnstablePet` refuses outright if the player has a pet, even an unsummoned one).
-/// - **stable → stable** has no opcode in 5875 at all, so it can only be a no-op.
+/// 1. **The summoned pet onto an OCCUPIED stable slot sends `SWAP`, not `STABLE`.** "Drag out ⇒
+///    stable it" only holds when the target slot is empty. The inferred version sent `STABLE` for
+///    both, which vmangos then refuses whenever both bought slots are full — the pet stays put and
+///    nothing says why.
+/// 2. **A drop onto an UNPURCHASED slot sends nothing**, and is still a completed drop (cursor
+///    cleared, falsy return).
+/// 3. **A stabled pet onto the summoned slot forks on the LIVE PET GUID**, not on whether slot 0
+///    has a row. A dismissed pet has a row and no guid, and the client sends `UNSTABLE` there —
+///    the inferred version read the row and sent `SWAP`.
 ///
-/// If the carve says the client instead ignores the drop target and acts on the *source* alone,
-/// only this function changes.
-fn drag_verb(from: u8, to: u8, has_current_pet: bool, pet_number: u32) -> Option<StableIntent> {
+/// Stable→stable remains a no-op: 5875 has no opcode for it, which the first build did get right.
+fn drag_verb(from: u8, to: u8, state: &StableState) -> Option<StableIntent> {
+    if from == to {
+        return None;
+    }
+    let occupied = |i: u8| state.slots.get(usize::from(i)).and_then(|s| s.as_ref());
     match (from, to) {
-        (0, 1..) => Some(StableIntent::Stable),
-        (1.., 0) if has_current_pet => Some(StableIntent::Swap(pet_number)),
-        (1.., 0) => Some(StableIntent::Unstable(pet_number)),
+        // The summoned pet is held.
+        (0, _) => match occupied(to) {
+            // …onto an occupied stable slot: trade places.
+            Some(target) => Some(StableIntent::Swap(target.pet_number)),
+            // …onto an empty slot the player owns: stable it (the server picks the destination).
+            None if u32::from(to) <= state.num_stable_slots => Some(StableIntent::Stable),
+            // …onto a slot they have not bought: nothing.
+            None => None,
+        },
+        // A stabled pet is held, dropped on the summoned slot.
+        (_, 0) => occupied(from).map(|held| {
+            if state.has_live_pet {
+                StableIntent::Swap(held.pet_number)
+            } else {
+                StableIntent::Unstable(held.pet_number)
+            }
+        }),
+        // Stable slot → stable slot: no opcode exists in 5875.
         _ => None,
     }
 }
@@ -211,10 +285,10 @@ fn drag_verb(from: u8, to: u8, has_current_pet: bool, pet_number: u32) -> Option
 pub(super) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
     let g = lua.globals();
 
-    // GetStablePetInfo(i) → icon, name, level, family, loyalty — five returns, or a bare nil for an
-    // empty slot (the reference tests `if ( icon )` on the first and `if ( GetStablePetInfo(i) )`
-    // on the call itself, so both shapes must read as absent). `family` substitutes "" rather than
-    // nil: the reference concatenates it into the level line unguarded (`PetStable.lua:100`).
+    // GetStablePetInfo(i) → icon, name, level, family, loyalty — **5 values on every reachable
+    // exit** (`0x4cb280`: `eax = 5` at both returns). A miss pushes `nil, nil, 0.0, nil, nil`, NOT
+    // nothing: the reference both tests the call for truthiness and destructures all five, and a
+    // bare nil would make `level` nil where the client answers 0.
     g.set(
         "GetStablePetInfo",
         lua.create_function(|lua, i: i64| {
@@ -223,7 +297,13 @@ pub(super) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
                 slot_index(i).and_then(|i| model.stable.state.as_ref()?.slots[i].clone())
             };
             let Some(pet) = pet else {
-                return Ok(MultiValue::new());
+                return Ok(MultiValue::from_vec(vec![
+                    Value::Nil,
+                    Value::Nil,
+                    Value::Number(0.0),
+                    Value::Nil,
+                    Value::Nil,
+                ]));
             };
             Ok(MultiValue::from_vec(vec![
                 match &pet.icon {
@@ -231,8 +311,11 @@ pub(super) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
                     None => Value::Nil,
                 },
                 Value::String(lua.create_string(&pet.name)?),
-                Value::Integer(i64::from(pet.level)),
-                Value::String(lua.create_string(pet.family.as_deref().unwrap_or(""))?),
+                Value::Number(f64::from(pet.level)),
+                match &pet.family {
+                    Some(f) => Value::String(lua.create_string(f)?),
+                    None => Value::Nil,
+                },
                 match &pet.loyalty {
                     Some(l) => Value::String(lua.create_string(l)?),
                     None => Value::Nil,
@@ -309,66 +392,135 @@ pub(super) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
         "GetSelectedStablePet",
         lua.create_function(|lua, ()| {
             let model = lua.app_data_ref::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
-            Ok(i64::from(model.stable.selected))
+            // NOT the raw field: the model holds the client's petNumber encoding, and this binding
+            // is its translation to slot indices (`selected_slot`).
+            Ok(i64::from(selected_slot(&model.stable)))
         })?,
     )?;
 
-    // ClickStablePet(i) → did anything change (the reference repaints only on true).
+    // ClickStablePet(i) → **exactly one value, always**, and which one is keyed SOLELY on whether
+    // the cursor held a pet — never on whether a packet went out (§6.2).
     //
-    // Two jobs, because the reference wires this to BOTH `OnClick` and `OnReceiveDrag`: commit a
-    // drag if one is in flight, otherwise select. The commit half's verb choice is `drag_verb`'s —
-    // and INFERRED until the carve lands (see there).
+    //   plain click  -> pure select, no packet, pushes 1.0 on ALL THREE legs  => always TRUTHY
+    //   drop         -> clears the cursor, pushes nil on EVERY leg            => always FALSY
+    //
+    // So the reference repaints on every click and on NO drop; a drop's repaint arrives with the
+    // server's next list. The first build had this inverted (true on a committed drag, false on a
+    // no-op) — invisible to a packet-only test, and in play a window that repaints off a stale
+    // snapshot on every drag and skips the repaint on every click.
     g.set(
         "ClickStablePet",
         lua.create_function(|lua, i: i64| {
+            let mut model = lua.app_data_mut::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
             let Some(to) = slot_index(i) else {
-                return Ok(false);
+                // Out of range still takes the select leg's "nothing" arm below.
+                if !matches!(
+                    model.cursor,
+                    Some(super::cursor::CursorPayload::StablePet(_))
+                ) {
+                    model.stable.selected = 0;
+                    return Ok(Value::Number(1.0));
+                }
+                super::cursor::clear_cursor(&mut model);
+                return Ok(Value::Nil);
             };
             let to = to as u8;
-            let mut model = lua.app_data_mut::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
-            let Some(state) = model.stable.state.as_ref() else {
-                return Ok(false);
-            };
 
-            if let Some(from) = model.stable.pickup {
-                // A drag lands. It is consumed whatever it turns into — including the
-                // stable→stable no-op, which must still put the cursor down rather than leave the
-                // window holding a pet nothing can drop.
-                let has_current = state.slots[0].is_some();
-                let pet_number = state.slots[from as usize]
+            // Regime B — a drop.
+            if let Some(super::cursor::CursorPayload::StablePet(held)) = model.cursor.clone() {
+                let from = held.slot;
+                let intent = model
+                    .stable
+                    .state
                     .as_ref()
-                    .map_or(0, |p| p.pet_number);
-                model.stable.pickup = None;
-                if from == to || pet_number == 0 {
-                    return Ok(false);
-                }
-                if let Some(intent) = drag_verb(from, to, has_current, pet_number) {
+                    .and_then(|state| drag_verb(from, to, state));
+                super::cursor::clear_cursor(&mut model);
+                if let Some(intent) = intent {
                     model.stable.intents.push(intent);
                 }
-                return Ok(true);
+                return Ok(Value::Nil);
             }
 
-            // A plain click selects. Selecting the already-selected slot changes nothing, and
-            // saying so keeps the reference from repainting the whole window on every click.
-            if model.stable.selected == i32::from(to) {
-                return Ok(false);
-            }
-            model.stable.selected = i32::from(to);
-            Ok(true)
+            // Regime A — a plain click: pure select, always truthy.
+            let pet_number = model
+                .stable
+                .state
+                .as_ref()
+                .and_then(|s| s.slots[usize::from(to)].as_ref())
+                .map(|p| p.pet_number);
+            model.stable.selected = match (to, pet_number) {
+                // Slot 0 selects the summoned pet by its own sentinel, not by a petNumber.
+                (0, _) => -1,
+                (_, Some(n)) => n as i32,
+                // An empty (or unowned) slot selects NOTHING, rather than the slot itself.
+                (_, None) => 0,
+            };
+            Ok(Value::Number(1.0))
         })?,
     )?;
 
-    // PickupStablePet(i) — begin a frame-local drag (module doc: NOT the global cursor). Picking up
-    // an empty slot is ignored, exactly as the reference's own empty buttons carry no pet to drag.
+    // PickupStablePet(i) — the mode-10 grab. **0 Lua values, always.**
+    //
+    // The client's gate is the family ICON path, not occupancy (`0x495010`: resolve the record,
+    // require a non-empty `CreatureFamily` icon, then set the payload). Ours is the resolved icon,
+    // which is the same test one step later: no icon, no grab.
     g.set(
         "PickupStablePet",
         lua.create_function(|lua, i: i64| {
             let mut model = lua.app_data_mut::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
-            let occupied = slot_index(i)
-                .and_then(|i| Some(model.stable.state.as_ref()?.slots[i].is_some()))
-                .unwrap_or(false);
-            if occupied {
-                model.stable.pickup = Some(i as u8);
+            let texture = slot_index(i)
+                .and_then(|i| model.stable.state.as_ref()?.slots[i].as_ref())
+                .and_then(|p| p.icon.clone());
+            if let Some(texture) = texture {
+                model.cursor = Some(super::cursor::CursorPayload::StablePet(
+                    super::cursor::CursorStablePet {
+                        slot: i as u8,
+                        texture,
+                    },
+                ));
+                super::cursor::queue_cursor_update(&mut model);
+            }
+            Ok(())
+        })?,
+    )?;
+
+    // StablePet() — 0 args, and it makes no Lua call at all in the reference: its only gate is a
+    // stable master being open, which for us is the snapshot's existence. Not called by the shipped
+    // FrameXML (the drag path sends this verb); it exists because the binding does.
+    g.set(
+        "StablePet",
+        lua.create_function(|lua, ()| {
+            let mut model = lua.app_data_mut::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
+            if model.stable.state.is_some() {
+                model.stable.intents.push(StableIntent::Stable);
+            }
+            Ok(())
+        })?,
+    )?;
+
+    // UnstablePet(i) — carries a gate the drag path does NOT (§7.1): it requires no charmed unit
+    // and **no pet out**, and bails SILENTLY otherwise, with no packet and no error. Its unsigned
+    // bound also rejects index 0 outright, where the drag path treats 0 as the summoned pet.
+    g.set(
+        "UnstablePet",
+        lua.create_function(|lua, i: i64| {
+            let mut model = lua.app_data_mut::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
+            let pet_number = model
+                .stable
+                .state
+                .as_ref()
+                .filter(|s| !s.has_live_pet)
+                .and_then(|s| {
+                    slot_index(i)
+                        .filter(|&i| i != 0)
+                        .and_then(|i| s.slots[i].as_ref())
+                })
+                .map(|p| p.pet_number);
+            if let Some(pet_number) = pet_number {
+                model
+                    .stable
+                    .intents
+                    .push(StableIntent::Unstable(pet_number));
             }
             Ok(())
         })?,
@@ -383,13 +535,27 @@ pub(super) fn install(lua: &Lua) -> mlua::Result<()> {
         lua.create_function(|_, _model: Value| Ok(()))?,
     )?;
 
-    // BuyStableSlot() — queue the purchase. The server prices and picks the slot; a refusal comes
-    // back as SMSG_STABLE_RESULT's ERR_MONEY.
+    // BuyStableSlot() — 0 args, with the client's own **silent** local gates in order (§7.1): a
+    // stable master open · the hard cap `slots != 2` · a price row exists · **affordability**.
+    // None of them shows a message; the reference disables the button instead. Applying them here
+    // rather than trusting the button matters because an addon can call the binding directly, and
+    // the server's refusal for the cap is the same indistinguishable ERR_STABLE as everything else.
     g.set(
         "BuyStableSlot",
         lua.create_function(|lua, ()| {
             let mut model = lua.app_data_mut::<Model>().expect("model app_data");
-            model.stable.intents.push(StableIntent::BuySlot);
+            // Affordability reads the VM's own purse — the same `model.money` the reference's
+            // `GetMoney()` returns and its own button-state ladder compares (`PetStable.lua:203`),
+            // rather than a second copy of the number in the stable snapshot.
+            let money = model.money;
+            let allowed = model.stable.state.as_ref().is_some_and(|s| {
+                s.num_stable_slots as usize != NUM_STABLE_SLOTS - 1
+                    && s.next_slot_cost != 0
+                    && u64::from(s.next_slot_cost) <= money
+            });
+            if allowed {
+                model.stable.intents.push(StableIntent::BuySlot);
+            }
             Ok(())
         })?,
     )?;
@@ -425,17 +591,25 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
-    /// A hunter with a pet out and one stabled, one slot bought.
-    fn open(s: &mut UiScript) {
-        s.set_stable(Some(StableState {
+    fn state(slots: [Option<StablePetSlot>; NUM_STABLE_SLOTS]) -> StableState {
+        StableState {
             num_stable_slots: 1,
             next_slot_cost: 50_000,
-            slots: [Some(pet(7, "Rex", 41)), Some(pet(8, "Bruiser", 38)), None],
-        }));
+            slots,
+            has_live_pet: true,
+        }
     }
 
-    /// The read surface, through the reference's own destructuring. A closed window answers the
-    /// absent shape everywhere rather than erroring — the frame's OnLoad runs before any list.
+    /// A hunter with a pet out and one stabled, one slot bought.
+    fn open(s: &mut UiScript) {
+        s.set_stable(Some(state([
+            Some(pet(7, "Rex", 41)),
+            Some(pet(8, "Bruiser", 38)),
+            None,
+        ])));
+    }
+
+    /// The read surface, through the reference's own destructuring.
     #[test]
     fn the_read_surface_answers_the_reference_calls() {
         let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
@@ -443,7 +617,6 @@ mod tests {
         assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetNumStablePets()").unwrap(), 0);
         assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetNextStableSlotCost()").unwrap(), 0);
         assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(), -1);
-        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return GetStablePetInfo(0) == nil").unwrap());
 
         open(&mut s);
         assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetNumStableSlots()").unwrap(), 1);
@@ -467,12 +640,7 @@ mod tests {
                 "(Loyalty Level 6) Best Friend".into()
             )
         );
-        // The empty third slot reads absent on both tests the reference makes.
-        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return GetStablePetInfo(2) == nil").unwrap());
-        // An out-of-range index is absent too, not an error.
-        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return GetStablePetInfo(9) == nil").unwrap());
 
-        // The diet list, as BuildListString receives it.
         assert_eq!(
             s.eval::<(String, String)>("return GetStablePetFoodTypes(1)")
                 .unwrap(),
@@ -483,119 +651,240 @@ mod tests {
             .unwrap());
     }
 
-    /// A plain click selects, and reports whether anything changed — the reference repaints only
-    /// on true, so a click on the already-selected slot must answer false or the window redraws
-    /// itself on every click.
+    /// **`GetStablePetInfo` returns five values on EVERY exit** (`eax = 5` at both returns), with a
+    /// miss pushing `nil, nil, 0, nil, nil`. The reference both tests the call for truthiness and
+    /// destructures all five, so a bare nil would leave `level` nil where the client answers 0 —
+    /// and would silently change the arity an addon sees.
     #[test]
-    fn a_plain_click_selects_once() {
+    fn a_missing_pet_still_answers_five_values() {
         let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
         open(&mut s);
-        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return ClickStablePet(1)").unwrap());
-        assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(), 1);
-        assert!(!s.eval::<bool>("return ClickStablePet(1)").unwrap());
-        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return ClickStablePet(0)").unwrap());
+        for call in ["GetStablePetInfo(2)", "GetStablePetInfo(9)"] {
+            assert_eq!(
+                s.eval::<i64>(&format!("return select('#', {call})"))
+                    .unwrap(),
+                5,
+                "{call} arity"
+            );
+            // Still falsy on the reference's own `if ( GetStablePetInfo(i) )` test.
+            assert!(s.eval::<bool>(&format!("return not {call}")).unwrap());
+            assert_eq!(
+                s.eval::<i64>(&format!("local _, _, l = {call} return l"))
+                    .unwrap(),
+                0,
+                "{call} level is 0, not nil"
+            );
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// **A plain click always returns truthy**, on all three of its legs — including a re-click of
+    /// the same slot and a click on an empty one. The reference repaints on the return, so a
+    /// falsy answer anywhere here is a window that stops repainting on click.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_plain_click_returns_truthy() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        open(&mut s);
+        for call in [
+            "ClickStablePet(1)",
+            "ClickStablePet(1)",
+            "ClickStablePet(0)",
+            "ClickStablePet(2)",
+        ] {
+            assert!(
+                s.eval::<bool>(&format!("return {call} and true or false"))
+                    .unwrap(),
+                "{call}"
+            );
+        }
+        assert!(
+            s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(),
+            "selecting sends nothing"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// The selection's three encodings, read back through `GetSelectedStablePet`'s translation:
+    /// slot 0 answers 0, an occupied stable slot answers its index, and an **empty** slot selects
+    /// nothing (`-1`) rather than itself.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_selection_translates_back_to_slot_indices() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        open(&mut s);
+        s.eval::<()>("ClickStablePet(0)").unwrap();
         assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(), 0);
-        // Selecting queues nothing on the wire.
+        s.eval::<()>("ClickStablePet(1)").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(), 1);
+        s.eval::<()>("ClickStablePet(2)").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(
+            s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(),
+            -1,
+            "an empty slot selects nothing, not itself"
+        );
+    }
+
+    /// A selection is held as a **petNumber**, so a refresh that no longer contains that pet
+    /// degrades to "nothing" rather than to a wrong slot — and every list clears it anyway.
+    #[test]
+    fn a_list_clears_the_selection_and_a_stale_pet_degrades() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        open(&mut s);
+        s.eval::<()>("ClickStablePet(1)").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(s.stable_selection(), 1);
+
+        // Every list message clears it (`0x4cadf8`) — the reference re-picks in PetStable_Update.
+        open(&mut s);
+        assert_eq!(s.stable_selection(), -1, "a list clears the selection");
+    }
+
+    /// **A drop always returns nil**, on every leg — the ones that send a packet included. The
+    /// reference therefore never repaints from a drop; the repaint arrives with the server's next
+    /// list. This is the convention the first build had inverted.
+    #[test]
+    fn every_drop_returns_falsy_even_when_it_sends() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        open(&mut s);
+        // A drop that DOES send.
+        assert!(s
+            .eval::<bool>("PickupStablePet(1) return ClickStablePet(0) == nil")
+            .unwrap());
+        assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Swap(8)]);
+
+        // A drop that sends nothing is equally falsy.
+        assert!(s
+            .eval::<bool>("PickupStablePet(1) return ClickStablePet(1) == nil")
+            .unwrap());
         assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty());
     }
 
-    /// Dragging the current pet onto a stable slot stables it — and the destination is *not* sent,
-    /// because the wire cannot carry one.
+    /// **The summoned pet onto an OCCUPIED stable slot is a SWAP, not a STABLE** — the first of the
+    /// three edges the inferred law got wrong. Sending STABLE there is refused by the server
+    /// whenever both bought slots are full, and nothing says why.
     #[test]
-    fn dragging_the_current_pet_out_stables_it() {
+    fn dropping_onto_an_occupied_slot_swaps() {
         let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
         open(&mut s);
-        s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(0) ClickStablePet(2)")
+        s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(0) ClickStablePet(1)")
             .unwrap();
-        assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Stable]);
+        assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Swap(8)]);
     }
 
-    /// Dragging a stabled pet onto the current slot forks on whether a pet is already out: a swap
-    /// when one is, a plain unstable when none is. The server refuses an unstable outright while a
-    /// pet exists, so picking the wrong one here fails every drag for a hunter with a pet.
+    /// …and onto an EMPTY slot the player owns it is a STABLE, whose destination the wire cannot
+    /// carry; onto one they have **not bought**, nothing at all — but the cursor still clears.
     #[test]
-    fn dragging_a_stabled_pet_in_forks_on_having_a_pet() {
+    fn an_unpurchased_slot_takes_the_drop_and_sends_nothing() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        // Slot 1 bought and empty, slot 2 unbought.
+        s.set_stable(Some(state([Some(pet(7, "Rex", 41)), None, None])));
+        s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(0) ClickStablePet(1)")
+            .unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Stable]);
+
+        s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(0) ClickStablePet(2)")
+            .unwrap();
+        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(), "slot 2 is not bought");
+        // The drop completed: the cursor is empty, so the next click SELECTS.
+        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return ClickStablePet(1) and true").unwrap());
+        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty());
+    }
+
+    /// **The stabled→summoned fork reads the LIVE PET GUID, not slot 0's row** — the third edge.
+    /// A dismissed pet still has a row from the server's character-pet cache while the guid is
+    /// zero, and the client sends UNSTABLE there.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_fork_follows_the_live_pet_not_the_row() {
         let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
         open(&mut s);
         s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(1) ClickStablePet(0)")
             .unwrap();
         assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Swap(8)]);
 
-        // Same drag with slot 0 empty — the hunter has no pet out.
-        s.set_stable(Some(StableState {
-            num_stable_slots: 1,
-            next_slot_cost: 50_000,
-            slots: [None, Some(pet(8, "Bruiser", 38)), None],
-        }));
+        // The same list, but the pet is dismissed: the row survives, the guid does not.
+        let mut dismissed = state([Some(pet(7, "Rex", 41)), Some(pet(8, "Bruiser", 38)), None]);
+        dismissed.has_live_pet = false;
+        s.set_stable(Some(dismissed));
         s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(1) ClickStablePet(0)")
             .unwrap();
-        assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Unstable(8)]);
+        assert_eq!(
+            s.take_stable_intents(),
+            vec![StableIntent::Unstable(8)],
+            "a row without a live guid unstables"
+        );
     }
 
-    /// A drag that has no verb still puts the pet down. Stable→stable has no opcode in 5875, and a
-    /// drag onto its own slot is a cancel; neither may leave the window holding a pet forever.
+    /// Stable→stable has no opcode in 5875, and an empty slot carries nothing to grab.
     #[test]
-    fn a_verbless_drag_is_still_consumed() {
+    fn stable_to_stable_is_a_no_op_and_empty_slots_do_not_grab() {
         let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
         s.set_stable(Some(StableState {
             num_stable_slots: 2,
-            next_slot_cost: 0,
             slots: [None, Some(pet(8, "Bruiser", 38)), None],
+            ..state([None, None, None])
         }));
         s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(1) ClickStablePet(2)")
             .unwrap();
         assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty());
-        // The pickup is gone, so the NEXT click selects rather than committing a stale drag.
-        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return ClickStablePet(1)").unwrap());
-        assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(), 1);
+
+        // An empty slot never arms a grab, so the following click is a select.
+        s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(2)").unwrap();
+        assert!(s.eval::<bool>("return ClickStablePet(0) and true").unwrap());
         assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty());
     }
 
-    /// An empty slot carries nothing to drag, so picking it up leaves no pickup armed — otherwise
-    /// the next click would commit a move for a pet that does not exist.
+    /// `BuyStableSlot`'s gates are the client's own, and all silent: the hard cap, and
+    /// affordability.
     #[test]
-    fn an_empty_slot_cannot_be_picked_up() {
+    fn buy_stable_slot_gates_locally_and_silently() {
         let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        s.set_money(1_000_000);
         open(&mut s);
-        s.eval::<()>("PickupStablePet(2) ClickStablePet(0)")
-            .unwrap();
-        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty());
-        assert_eq!(s.eval::<i64>("return GetSelectedStablePet()").unwrap(), 0);
-    }
-
-    /// The purchase and close intents, and the close's state reset: a selection must not survive
-    /// into the next stable master's window.
-    #[test]
-    fn purchase_and_close_intents_drain() {
-        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
-        open(&mut s);
-        s.eval::<()>("ClickStablePet(1) BuyStableSlot()").unwrap();
+        s.eval::<()>("BuyStableSlot()").unwrap();
         assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::BuySlot]);
-        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(), "drain clears");
 
+        // Too poor.
+        s.set_money(10);
+        s.set_stable(Some(state([None, None, None])));
+        s.eval::<()>("BuyStableSlot()").unwrap();
+        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(), "unaffordable is silent");
+
+        // Both slots owned — the hard cap (and money restored, so only the cap can refuse).
+        s.set_money(1_000_000);
+        let mut full = state([None, None, None]);
+        full.num_stable_slots = 2;
+        s.set_stable(Some(full));
+        s.eval::<()>("BuyStableSlot()").unwrap();
+        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(), "the cap is silent");
+    }
+
+    /// `UnstablePet` carries a gate the drag path does not: no pet out, else silence. And its
+    /// unsigned bound rejects index 0, where the drag path reads 0 as the summoned pet.
+    #[test]
+    fn the_unstable_binding_gates_where_the_drag_path_does_not() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        open(&mut s); // has_live_pet = true
+        s.eval::<()>("UnstablePet(1)").unwrap();
+        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(), "a pet is out — silent");
+
+        let mut dismissed = state([None, Some(pet(8, "Bruiser", 38)), None]);
+        dismissed.has_live_pet = false;
+        s.set_stable(Some(dismissed));
+        s.eval::<()>("UnstablePet(0)").unwrap();
+        assert!(s.take_stable_intents().is_empty(), "index 0 is rejected");
+        s.eval::<()>("UnstablePet(1)").unwrap();
+        assert_eq!(s.take_stable_intents(), vec![StableIntent::Unstable(8)]);
+    }
+
+    /// The close intent, and that closing does NOT drop a held pet — the reference's close clears
+    /// only the stable-master guid.
+    #[test]
+    fn close_drains_and_leaves_the_cursor_alone() {
+        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
+        open(&mut s);
         assert!(!s.take_stable_close());
         s.eval::<()>("ClosePetStables()").unwrap();
         assert!(s.take_stable_close());
         assert!(!s.take_stable_close(), "drain clears");
-
-        assert_eq!(s.stable_selection(), 1);
-        s.set_stable(None);
-        assert_eq!(s.stable_selection(), -1, "a close forgets the selection");
     }
 
-    /// A content refresh — which benilla does after every successful action — must KEEP the
-    /// selection. Resetting it there would move the player's highlight on every button press.
-    #[test]
-    fn a_refresh_keeps_the_selection() {
-        let mut s = UiScript::new().unwrap();
-        open(&mut s);
-        s.eval::<()>("ClickStablePet(1)").unwrap();
-        open(&mut s);
-        assert_eq!(s.stable_selection(), 1);
-    }
-
-    /// `SetPetStablePaperdoll` exists and is harmless — the reference calls it at four sites, and a
-    /// missing global would be a Lua error mid-repaint.
+    /// `SetPetStablePaperdoll` exists and is harmless — the reference calls it at four sites.
     #[test]
     fn the_paperdoll_setter_is_callable() {
         let s = UiScript::new().unwrap();