Curate, connect, and discover
(old draft i wrote back in like july or august) Phil is an assassin/bounty hunter known as “The Angel of Death” who does contract killing to earn some extra cash to take care of his three sons.
Phil isn’t ashamed of what he does, but it isn’t glamorous so he’d rather no one know about it, and works very hard to hide his identity and his hero persona in general from the public. The Angel of Death is just a rumor around the region and no one that’s seen him has lived to tell the tale (or been sober enough to be believed.)
However, his kids suddenly become OBSESSED with the Angel of death, and Phil has to scramble to keep them from idolizing him and being a bad influence. But they just think he’s sooo cool and don’t wanna let their cool new idol go.
So Phil instead embraces their obsession, crafting a more kid friendly version of The Angel of Death.
He confirms that the Angel is in fact real, but;
“His ACTUAL name is Crow Father, and, no, he doesn’t KILL people. He just watches over the city and is a simple night watcher. In fact, he helps bad guys see the error of their ways by talking to them. All the dead criminals that show up are unrelated and why do you kids even know about that stop watching the news.”
So Tommy, Wilbur, and Techno grow up with a WILDLY different version of the Angel of Death legend, believing him to be just some positive role model for kids that spouts wholesome messages and encourages good habits like “Brush your teeth!” or “clean your room!”
Techno and Wilbur grew out of the Angel of Death obsession a year so after that, thinking he’s just for little kids, but Tommy held onto that phase until he was a teenager, then they all pretty much forgot about it. Phil had long since retired and the Angel of Death legend is all but completely dead, morphing into a tale about a monster, cryptid, or spirit that once roamed the countryside instead of a mysterious killer that targeted criminals.
Phil, thinking his secret is safe, foolishly relaxes for the next few years, positive NO ONE will ever know it was him.
Until his kids come home from being away for quite some time, and start talking about their old obsession. Some dots begin to connect, like the hero’s disappearance sometime when Phil came home with a mysterious stab wound, and why he was always tired like he’d stayed up the entire night…
Meanwhile Phil is chopping onions or something a few feet away listening in just thinking “don’t look at me, don’t look at me, don’t look at me-”