Moel Gas Station Attendant

"It's in the back, to your left. You know which way's left? The side you don't hold your chopsticks in."

- The Attendant guiding Nanako to the toilet

The Moel Gas Station Attendant is a character in Persona 4. He works at the gas station at the south entrance of the Central Shopping District. He welcomes the protagonist to the city upon his first day in Yasoinaba, offers him a part time job at the gas station and shakes his hand.

Appearances

 * Persona 4 / Golden: Major Character
 * Persona 4 (Manga): Major Character
 * Persona 4 The Animation / Golden Animation: Major Character
 * Persona 4 VISUALIVE: Minor Character
 * Persona 4 VISUALIVE THE EVOLUTION: Major Character

Design
The Attendant has gray, wavy hair growing past his shoulders. He wears Moel's gas station attendant uniform consisting of the simple red, orange or yellow, black and white color scheme of the gas station itself which is tucked into his pants, along with plain black shoes. Upon further inspection of the attendant's 3D model textures, there is a pen in his shirt's breast pocket, although it is only present in this appearance of the attendant.

Upon his reveal, his portrait shows him with red eyes, a pale complexion, and bangs over his face. The pen is not present in his pocket but it reveals Moel's logo of a flame, which is present in the rest of the attendant's appearances.

In The Animation along with The Golden Animation, he has brown eyes and a much more natural complexion. Looking more human to keep up with his facade as a gas station attendant.

In VISUALIVE, the attendant is portrayed with natural brown hair, keeping a rag on person which he leaves in his back pant pocket, and is seen wearing a pair of orange and black shoes with white laces, while following a star motif on the sides and sole of each shoe. In its sequel, subtitled THE EVOLUTION, the attendant is portrayed with black hair, his shirt left noticeably untucked with a white bar underneath each of his sleeves, and a pair of black sneakers.

Personality
The attendant presents himself to be a friendly and chatty individual, such as making such as asking Dojima if he and the others came from a trip, or making small talk to the protagonist during the same visit to the gas station, His dialogue in the overworld as you interact with him starts off as if he were the one calling the protagonist when he notices him. He is also strangely perceptive and reflective as seen as he speaks about Inaba and its community throughout the year. The attendant is polite as he works, cheerfully responding to Dojima as he is given orders to attend to his car. He has an odd, yet childish sense of humor that may seem to offend others, such as Nanako being offended that she's joked about being a kid who might not know what left or right is. Or in VISUALIVE, the stageplay, where his banter with Adachi consisted of making fun of him, but all in the midst of his genuine show of emotions and opinions,

Persona 4
The Moel Gas Station Attendant makes his first appearance in Persona 4 during the protagonist's first visit to Inaba after meeting up with his uncle and his cousin, Ryotaro Dojima and Nanako Dojima. During their journey to fetch the protagonist from the train station, they stop by the Moel Gas Station and are welcomed and attended to by the gas station attendant,

Dojima later decides to take the opportunity to have a smoke, and along with Nanako having gone to the restroom, this has left the protagonist with the attendant. After becoming intrigued from hearing that the protagonist came from a metropolis of a city compared to Inaba, he took this chance to speak with him. As the rather chatty employee he is, he asks if the protagonist is in highschool and mentions he would find it boring in a place like Inaba, and that he would hang out with friends or work at part-time jobs. He then takes this opportunity to mention that the gas station has an opening for part-time help. The attendant reaches out his hand in a friendly gesture asking him to consider, and in return, the protagonist shakes the attendant's hand.

After the handshake, the attendant leaves to get back to work, all while Nanako returns and noticeably watches the attendant from afar. The protagonist is caught up with a dizzy spell, which he brushes away. Nanako comes closer to the protagonist and asks him if he were carsick, which the protagonist now assumes that may be the reason for his dizziness.

The attendant can later be interacted with during rainy days at the gas station. Among his possible dialogue, he would tell the protagonist the rumor of the Midnight Channel while expressing his interest about it, remarking that he should try it himself some time. This dialogue can be discovered early within the year. He would usually speak about town gossip and his own thoughts about the state of Inaba's community the way he perceives it.

If the protagonist refuses to go back home on the final day and goes to Junes instead, the party will reminisce of their experiences. However, they soon become worried about the Midnight Channel, the fog still lingering in the TV World, and the possibility someone may use that world to commit atrocities, in which they proceed to connect these ideas together. They question the protagonist's ability to enter the TV World despite never entering it before nor obtaining a Persona beforehand, similar to Tohru Adachi and Taro Namatame. The protagonist reads the letter from Adachi which gives them a lead that all three of them received their powers to enter the TV World upon their arrival in Inaba, and in Namatame's case, arriving in the neighborhood of the Central Shopping District, which is where his parents' home is located after being fired from his job and no longer having the need to live near the city's government offices. The protagonist visits the Samegawa Flood Plain once again to speak to the Dojimas about his first day in Inaba. This is where he remembers their encounter with the Moel gas station attendant.

No NPCs are aware of the gas station attendant besides Dojima and Nanako. Upon conversing with the two at the Samegawa Flood Plain near the end of the game, Dojima mentions he had never met the attendant before and never saw him after that encounter. Nanako remembers the attendant because he was "weird." However, after Dojima interjects that the attendant wasn't necessarily "weird," Nanako corrects herself and admits she found him "scary," after explaining she saw the protagonist look sick after interacting with him. On that same day, the "Spacey Girl" will be present in front of the gas station. She will be confused about an attendant working at the gas station and will say she has only seen an old man and an old woman working there.

The protagonist concludes that the true culprit is the Moel gas station attendant. He enters the Velvet Room and recieves the Orb of Sight from Igor, and when he leaves and returns to the shopping disctrict, it rains, as it was originally cloudy that day. The attendant will appear in front of the gas station as usual, and the protagonist confronts him and begins to pressure him with questions. While evading his questions, the attendant will appear mildly irritated and amused, clearly beginning to break his facade of a polite and chatty gas station attendant. The attendant then breaks into laughter, subsequently revealing himself as the true culprit and begins to speaks with a character portrait of a menacing depiction of himself. This said portrait has never appeared until this point. He taunts the protagonist and makes the scheme of his "game" clear.The attendant tells the protagonist that he had seen the potential within him, which led him to give him the power to enter the TV, then later becoming surprised he has surpassed his expectations. He attracted people, the members of the Investigation Team, which he helped to obtain their power of Persona. This convinced the attendant they were powerful enough to survive the TV World and gave them powers to enter it themselves, too. The attendant mentions he "welcomed" others with a handshake to give them their own powers to enter the TV, those people being Tohru Adachi and Taro Namatame. All of this was done to stimulate the community of Inaba, creating an event from their intertwining actions. This is where the attendant could gather and gauge the people's reactions, all as a "game" where everyone had their parts to play. He questions the protagonist's perseverance and his need to search for the "truth" when there is no need for it, seeing him as "unsatisfied" while being greedy as his foolish nature of being mortal. He reveals himself to be a deity in the name of "Izanami." She floats in the air, now dressed in white robes layered atop each other over the human-like appearance of a woman. She states that "Ameno-Sagiri" was a temporary figure they gave birth to; an instrument manifested to remotely interact with the Investigation Team after possessing Adachi in Magatsu-Inaba earlier in December.

(For the rest of the attendant's role, see Izanami.)

Persona 4 Golden
After visiting the Velvet Room to receive the Orb of Sight, Marie speaks of her "true memories" which she only recalled recently. She speaks of herself originally being "Izanami-no-Mikoto" before splitting into two. She says that she was used as a tool and manipulated by the other half, which she concludes is the true culprit behind everything. She asks the protagonist to defeat her, or the world will never be truly clear of the fog.

The attendant admits that he hid Sagiri within Namatame and Adachi individually. He speaks lowly of Marie, never mentioning her name alongside Adachi and Namatame's, and only refers to her with belittling terms such as "that stunted dwarf of a life," "rubbish," or even "irresponsible." He laughs at how pitiful she is, especially due to the fact she was hanging on to the bamboo comb as if it were an important belonging. The attendant explains he gave Marie a comb to represent their separation from whole they were as "Izanami-no-Mikoto."

The Animation
In the anime, the gas station attendant's role remains the same, but he makes a cameo appearance during the 22nd episode speaking to two women in front of the gas station after being yelled at by a crazed man in a gas mask. He approaches them and chats them up, saying something that the fog shouldn't be harmful at all.

The Golden Animation
Similar to The Animation, the attendant's role remains the same. He makes a brief appearance in the 12th episode when Yu and Marie are trying to recall memories. After visually coming into focus, the attendant is seen in front of the gas station while it rains and the view slowly starts to fog. After showing her visions of shaking hands with Yu, Adachi and Namatame, he telepathically speaks to Marie and asks her if she'd like to peer into his memories. The view returns to the gas station now completely obscured with fog.

VISUALIVE
He makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the stageplay in the middle of the montage of the protagonist's first few days in Inaba. He later acts in a short comedy skit with Adachi of the detective's own first day in Inaba.

VISUALIVE THE EVOLUTION
He acts rather aloof than the usual cheery disposition the attendant facade is meant to have, but he still acts as a gas station attendant nonetheless. His appearances are scattered throughout the stageplay appearing in significant parts of the main plot, such as the protagonist, Adachi and Namatame in one place, in the hospital after the confrontation with Namatame, or after the battle with Ameno-Sagiri where the Investigation Team contemplate Teddie's sacrifice while in front of the gas station. The story continues as usual, where the protagonist confronts the attendant and he reveals himself to be "Izanami."

Trivia

 * When the attendant performs the handshake to the protagonist, if the player is using a handheld controller, the controller will vibrate.
 * In the Japanese dub of the game, the attendant's voice is masculine, while his voice in the English dub is androgynous. However, in both Japanese and English dub of the anime, the attendant's voice is masculine.
 * The attendant does not have a portrait when he speaks to the protagonist at the start of the game, or when interacted with in the overworld. His portraits only appear when talked to in the True Ending scenario, all before he reveals himself to be Izanami.
 * There is dummy code found within the game's files pertaining to the Social Links where the Gas Station Attendant was left there as a placeholder. Its data consists of placeholder dialogue and events showing the gas station at a different angle. An edited portrait of the attendant can also be found where it is darkened, has the text "(dummy)" in Japanese, and a black bar obscures his eyes, yet it is left unused entirely.
 * Though the attendant's age is never clearly stated, in VISUALIVE, he briefly mentions that he is "over 20" to justify that he's old enough to smoke.