The Dark Ages

File:Daniel playing slots at The Aria.mov

Daniel spotted in The Aria, sitting at the slot machines by iamstoney#7917 shortly before his disappearance

     The Dark Ages, or The Larsonian Blackout, refers to a point in the Daniel Larson timeline where seemingly out of nowhere, Daniel's posts came to a sudden stop. Following the events of the previous few days where Daniel found himself wandering around Las Vegas and getting banned from MGM properties, Daniel mysteriously went AWOL, leaving the entire community confused. During his absence, the Daniel Larson subreddit was made private due to the risk of it being banned after The Seige of R/Las Vegas. This marked the start of The Dark Ages. Daniel uploaded his last video before his disappearance on the 15th of February, asking for donations to be able to afford a hotel for the night and claiming to be at "13 Points". He was spotted by fans hours prior at The Aria Casino on the strip, where he was sitting at a slot machine and supposedly had $14 in credit (Information from iamstoney#7917 on the Daniel Larson World discord). 
    
There were very few updates on Daniel's whereabouts during this time, and he was claimed to have been spotted multiple times by Las Vegas locals, but these claims have yet to be proved. Daniel remained missing until the 22nd of February, where a video posted by u/Ill_Editor1804 on the r/daniellarson subreddit showed a man crossing the street who looked eerily similar to Daniel. OP wrote in the caption of the post, "Hey guys, I just witnessed Daniel getting kicked off a city bus in Las Vegas. He tried getting on but refused to pay the fare. After I got off the bus, my father picked me up and we drove back down the street, and he was walking I snagged a quick video. It looks like he got a fresh haircut bald again. He is still wearing the same outfit from over 8 days ago. He sounded very defeated and sad when he was talking with the bus driver." This was the first legitimate piece of information on Daniel since the 16th of February. 
    
Daniel's sighting almost immediately shut down all theories regarding his situation, such as him retreating into the Las Vegas tunnels and being killed, being cloned, receiving a lobotomy, or being arrested,  as there was finally concrete evidence that he was alive and well. However, the blackout hadn't quite come to a conclusion, as Daniel still had no way of communicating with the internet, but the community finally had a piece of the puzzle. 
    
At around 5pm PST on 2/23/2023, Daniel finally made his return on a new TikTok account (@daniellarsonlv) uploading a series of videos explaining his absence. He claims to have been jumped by 2 "fans" who punched him and stole his phone. He also claimed that during the interaction with the 2 attackers, they fractured his skull, which explains the buzz cut that he received during his visit to the hospital. He was also wearing the same jacket that he was spotted wearing in the reddit post previously mentioned. All the dots started to connect, as it was made apparent that Daniel had no phone and couldn't afford a new one considering he had no access to his donations which were done through apps like CashApp and PayPal, and he had to rely on the generosity of his fanbase to acquire a new phone in person. Upon Daniel's return, he also stated he would be receiving $380 of food stamps per month, and he now has housing arrangements through a company called Sober Homes. This part of the story is still unfolding, and all of the information here is yet to be 100% proven, however these accounts come straight from Daniel Larson himself, and are unlikely to be false, but only time will tell.

While only lasting a little over a week, The Dark Ages was a worrisome period in the Daniel Larson community. No update was available on the whereabouts of Daniel, the subreddit was down, and panic amassed in the discord with allegations and theories springing up from multiple sources and individuals. Fortunately, The Dark Ages came to an abrupt end after Daniel was able to get a new phone and make a new TikTok account where he updated his fans on the situation.