Interesting. It shouldn’t be returning a null value. That would mean the ABP can’t find its owner, my first thought is that somehow the character is loading AFTER the ABP.
Try adding a 5 second delay after the initialize on the ABP. This is not a good permanent solution, but it’s a way to figure out the problem.
Also, try doing this in a basic level, not the Crumbling Faram Azula-looking place that decimates your video memory! 
That could be part of the issue, causing certain threads to be slower.