diff --git a/client/scripts/autoloads/game_state.gd b/client/scripts/autoloads/game_state.gd
index 05cacc630..e9998fd57 100644
--- a/client/scripts/autoloads/game_state.gd
+++ b/client/scripts/autoloads/game_state.gd
@@ -100,7 +100,8 @@ var character_archetype: String = "detective"
 # #705: Character visual descriptor — set by character_creation.gd on confirmation.
 # Passed to EntityRenderer for the player entity's CharacterVisual on game start.
 # Null when no custom appearance has been selected (fallback: default descriptor).
-var character_visual_descriptor: CharacterVisualDescriptor = null
+# Type is CharacterVisualDescriptor — untyped to avoid autoload parse-order issue.
+var character_visual_descriptor = null
 
 # #646: AI-Enhanced Dialogue enabled state (D-138).
 # Runtime toggle — true means the LLM re-voicing pipeline should run (server-side).
@@ -366,7 +367,8 @@ func apply_snapshot(snapshot: Dictionary) -> void:
 	# Server persists the descriptor and includes it in ObserverSnapshot after load.
 	# Only update when field is present (null means no change).
 	if snapshot.has("character_visual_descriptor") and snapshot.character_visual_descriptor is Dictionary:
-		var restored := CharacterVisualDescriptor.from_dict(snapshot.character_visual_descriptor)
+		var CVD := load("res://scripts/rendering/character_visual_descriptor.gd")
+		var restored = CVD.from_dict(snapshot.character_visual_descriptor)
 		if restored != null:
 			character_visual_descriptor = restored
 
diff --git a/client/scripts/autoloads/sim_bridge.gd b/client/scripts/autoloads/sim_bridge.gd
index e09bf99aa..8154886bb 100644
--- a/client/scripts/autoloads/sim_bridge.gd
+++ b/client/scripts/autoloads/sim_bridge.gd
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ enum ConnectionState { DISCONNECTED, CONNECTING, HANDSHAKING, CONNECTED, ERROR }
 
 var state: ConnectionState = ConnectionState.DISCONNECTED
 var test_mode: bool = OS.get_environment("SR_LIVE") != "1"  # SR_LIVE=1 connects to real server
-var harness: TestHarness = null  # Test simulation (D-020: game logic lives outside production client)
+# Type is TestHarness — untyped to avoid autoload parse-order issue.
+var harness = null  # Test simulation (D-020: game logic lives outside production client)
 var _last_snapshot: Variant = null  # Most recent decoded snapshot (consumed by poll_snapshot)
 var _outbound_buffer: Array[Dictionary] = []  # Raw inputs awaiting batch encode + transport
 
@@ -33,7 +34,7 @@ signal handshake_failed(reason: String)
 
 func _ready() -> void:
 	if test_mode:
-		harness = TestHarness.new()
+		harness = load("res://scripts/protocol/test_harness.gd").new()
 		print("SimBridge: Running in test mode (dynamic snapshot)")
 
 
diff --git a/client/scripts/autoloads/ui_strings.gd b/client/scripts/autoloads/ui_strings.gd
index 95dd4e6d5..00da195a0 100644
--- a/client/scripts/autoloads/ui_strings.gd
+++ b/client/scripts/autoloads/ui_strings.gd
@@ -51,4 +51,4 @@ func reload() -> void:
 ## Returns flat Dictionary with dotted keys: { "section.sub.key": "value" }.
 ## Delegates to YamlParser.parse_flat() (#560).
 static func _parse_yaml(text: String) -> Dictionary:
-	return YamlParser.parse_flat(text)
+	return load("res://scripts/util/yaml_parser.gd").parse_flat(text)
diff --git a/client/scripts/protocol/protocol.gd b/client/scripts/protocol/protocol.gd
index 60be0a6ba..93a25a2f1 100644
--- a/client/scripts/protocol/protocol.gd
+++ b/client/scripts/protocol/protocol.gd
@@ -516,8 +516,8 @@ static func encode_startup_message(world_seed: int, character_archetype: String
 		"world_seed": world_seed,
 		"character_archetype": archetype_variant,
 	}
-	if character_visual != null and character_visual is CharacterVisualDescriptor:
-		msg["character_visual_descriptor"] = (character_visual as CharacterVisualDescriptor).to_dict()
+	if character_visual != null and character_visual.has_method("to_dict"):
+		msg["character_visual_descriptor"] = character_visual.to_dict()
 	var result = Messagepack.encode(msg)
 	if result.status != null:
 		push_error("Protocol: startup message encode failed: %s" % result.status)
diff --git a/client/ui/main_menu.gd b/client/ui/main_menu.gd
index 992aea439..e50a83c14 100644
--- a/client/ui/main_menu.gd
+++ b/client/ui/main_menu.gd
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ func _show_character_creation() -> void:
 	_char_creation.creation_cancelled.connect(_on_creation_cancelled)
 
 
-func _on_creation_confirmed(descriptor: CharacterVisualDescriptor) -> void:
+func _on_creation_confirmed(descriptor) -> void:
 	if _char_creation != null and is_instance_valid(_char_creation):
 		_char_creation.queue_free()
 		_char_creation = null