Origins of #PrayForDave

• 💡 The mystery began in February 2018 with cryptic Craigslist ads in New Orleans, featuring phrases like "each teenage Monarch possesses every Crossroad" and the hashtag #PrayForDave.
• 📞 Users who called the listed 504 phone number encountered robotic, incoherent voices repeating "pray for Dave" or delivering strange messages, such as instructions to "vasile" about targeting liquor supply.
• 📌 The same ad text, including the phone number and hashtag, appeared across various Craigslist sections and locations, expanding the local oddity into an online phenomenon.

Expanding Online Presence

• 🐦 The mystery moved to Twitter under the username RexTodd12, posting similar cryptic content and using a young Keanu Reeves photo as a profile picture, which also appeared in Craigslist posts.
• 📺 A YouTube channel, Rex Todd, emerged, featuring videos with AI voices, Morse code, and school photos (including Ryan Reynolds as a child), often titled with obscure phrases like "the last house chases a hotel man."
• 💬 The YouTube channel descriptions consistently included five sets of three zeros, #PrayForDave, and the original phone number, with some videos potentially being recordings of voicemails received.

Connections and Theories

• 🔗 The mystery became linked to other New Orleans internet oddities like the "old baker moment" and "monk runs," leading to author F.X. Speedman and the experimental music collective Sound Ass.
• 🎶 A band called We Are Not Musicians, featuring F.X. Speedman, released a song titled #PrayForDave, raising questions about whether they originated or were inspired by the mystery.
• 🤔 Primary theories suggest #PrayForDave is an Alternate Reality Game (ARG), an art project, or a prank, with some speculation about mental illness, though F.X. Speedman explicitly denied involvement.

Enduring Enigma

• ⏳ Despite its six-year duration, the mystery remains unresolved, with no clear purpose or conclusion, unlike typical ARGs that often lead to promotional material.
• 🔄 The Rex Todd accounts continue to upload and tweet, sometimes in response to external coverage, with recent videos containing Morse code coordinates for the New Orleans Fairgrounds.
• 💡 The phenomenon's meta-referential nature, including mentions of other internet mysteries like Erratas and "Ubisoft goes Steamworks," suggests it might be an intentional creation by someone familiar with the genre.