diff --git a/PROJECT.md b/PROJECT.md
index 01b614c..10aa77f 100644
--- a/PROJECT.md
+++ b/PROJECT.md
@@ -451,6 +451,13 @@ followed you onto the silent menu.
 `menuMusic()` is now the one call that means "we are in the menus": it starts the theme, un-ducks
 it, and ducks both court beds. `ambient()` and `zombieMusic()` un-duck themselves for the same
 reason — the SECOND run would otherwise have been played in the silence the menu left them in.
+
+**...and each of those un-ducks ITS OWN BED ONLY.** The first cut had `ambient()` un-duck both
+court beds together, which put the splatter music back on in classic tennis for the rest of the
+session — Oliver caught it on the retest: *"after playing the splatter gore, the zombie background
+sound also keeps playing in the normal tennis game."* LEAVING the court is one event and ducks both
+beds; ARRIVING is not. The ambience belongs to every mode, the zombie bed belongs to the gore, and
+only `enterSplatter` may bring that one up.
 **The rule, for anything added here later: a bed's start function must also un-duck it, because
 starting it is a no-op the second time and ducking it is not.** `audio.bedTest` exposes the duck
 set to the suite (same idea as `netTest`), which is what makes this testable at all — the beds
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index d77d921..4bbd5fa 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -547,6 +547,6 @@ if (location.hostname !== 'splatter-tennis.wuwi.one') {
     </div>
   </div>
 </div>
-<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=261"></script>
+<script type="module" src="src/main.js?v=262"></script>
 </body>
 </html>
diff --git a/src/audio.js b/src/audio.js
index 9a78f0d..59353b6 100644
--- a/src/audio.js
+++ b/src/audio.js
@@ -164,7 +164,15 @@ function loopBed(file, lowcut, vol, loopEnd = 0) {
 // whole-scene atmosphere, from the first tap. Un-ducks as well as starts, for the same reason
 // menuMusic does: loopBed no-ops once the bed exists, so a SECOND run would have opened over the
 // silence the menu left it in.
-export const ambient = () => { loopBed('tennis-ambient-loop.wav', 500, 0.035); courtDuck(false); };
+// ...but ONLY ITS OWN BED. It briefly un-ducked both court beds together (courtDuck) and that put
+// the splatter music back on in classic tennis for the rest of the session, because every run
+// starts here (Oliver, 2026-08-15: "after playing the splatter gore, the zombie background sound
+// also keeps playing in the normal tennis game"). Leaving the court is one event and ducks both;
+// ARRIVING is not — the ambience belongs to every mode and the zombie bed belongs to the gore.
+export const ambient = () => {
+  loopBed('tennis-ambient-loop.wav', 500, 0.035);
+  fadeBed('tennis-ambient-loop.wav', false);
+};
 // ...and the splatter bed, same treatment: 5.9 MB of 24-bit WAV down to 287 KB. Its master is
 // 982597 frames at 48 kHz, which is the un-round 20.47077 s below — an AAC loop needs the SOURCE
 // length as loopEnd, not the decoder's padded one. See the note on menuMusic.
diff --git a/src/render.js b/src/render.js
index 717863c..a483f6f 100644
--- a/src/render.js
+++ b/src/render.js
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ function farB(z) {
 // Asset cache-buster — bump with main.js?v=N (see the img.src note below). EXPORTED because the
 // menu screens hang <img> tags on the same files, and two copies of this number is one copy too
 // many: the one that does not get bumped is the one that serves a cached 404.
-export const SPRV = 130;
+export const SPRV = 131;
 // The boot bar in main.js watches this. Nothing here CHANGES when things load — every sprite was
 // already requested at import — it just makes the wait visible and holds the menu back until the
 // last sheet has landed. See the onerror note below for the other half of "sometimes missing".
diff --git a/test.js b/test.js
index 2011e29..ecbc642 100644
--- a/test.js
+++ b/test.js
@@ -869,6 +869,14 @@ test('the menus own the theme, and hand the court back its silence', () => {
   assert.ok(d.has(AMB) && d.has(ZOM), '...and the court does not follow you into the menu');
   audio.ambient(); audio.zombieMusic();    // ...and the NEXT run is not played in silence
   assert.ok(!d.has(AMB) && !d.has(ZOM), 'a second run sounds like the first');
+  // ...but the SPLATTER BED IS THE GORE'S ALONE. Every run of every mode starts the ambience, so
+  // un-ducking both court beds there put the zombie music back on in classic tennis for the rest of
+  // the session (Oliver: "after playing the splatter gore, the zombie background sound also keeps
+  // playing in the normal tennis game"). Leaving the court is one event; arriving is not.
+  audio.menuMusic();                       // back to the menu after a gore run
+  audio.ambient();                         // ...and into a game of plain tennis
+  assert.ok(!d.has(AMB), 'the ambience belongs to every mode');
+  assert.ok(d.has(ZOM), 'the splatter music does NOT follow you into classic tennis');
   audio.menuMusic();
 });