wdym these two aren't the same character?

Let's see...

He's both the opposite of what he seems and exactly like he seems.

I'm going to try to explain this but I'm sorry if it's not super coherent. He seems like he's going to be an edgy, brooding loner with a dark past. And then you get to know him a little and he's an extremely kind person who's eager to help everyone (although he tries to play it off like he's not). But also he is a cold assassin who has and will kill people. He's not quippy or provocative like someone like Niles. He's always very polite and formal, but then again brutally honest (even when he feels bad about it, like with Anna). He does everything he possibly can to not brood about his past, but it still haunts him all the time.

I don't know. I feel like he is a subversion of a lot of tropes while still actually falling into them, which is where a lot of the humor and charm of his supports come from. I think he's always just not quite what you expect.

These two were inspired by two of my favorite novels, My Iyashikei Game and My House of Horrors! (Please go read them :)

Hugo Marshall is a unemployed man who rented a cheap apartment rumored to be haunted because of his piss poor finances after he got let go from his job. He didn't believe the rumors until he moved in and was scared by the lady inside the apartment with him!

After a bit of digging online and from asking neighbors/nearby residents, he discovered that Lady Red had been murdered in this very same apartment and was now haunting it, her soul tainted with resentment and unable to pass away peacefully.

He felt sad about her story and wanted to help her out, but he was also doing everything he can to stay in the apartment without her killing him because he really didn't have anywhere else to go.

Eventually, the man's sincerity to help began to rub off on Lady Red and she grew to rely on him to investigate her death, in order for her to take the souls of the ones who put her in this miserable situation.

With Jack's dad being a wolf, he can understand animals (that he grew up with) and can talk back to them (not including human language). He doesn't always understand, but Jack's fluent enough for a conversation.

Of course, with Princess Elizabeth being a spoiled little brat (and surrounded by dangerous people working under the Guktav) her behavior is abhorrently offensive, but only Jack seems to understand that since nobody else gets her but him.