#sunbound if

LINK TO THE GAME. Prologue. (Around 7k words). LAST UPDATE: July 7, 2026. Ko-Fi

After eight years in the shadows, ICARIS returns for one last flight. A farewell album. A worldwide tour. A legacy finally given its proper send-off.

Their story is told in an eight-part docuseries, Sunbound: ICARIS’ Final Flight—mixing present-day footage with archival clips, livestreams, concert films, and video logs. Raw, intimate, and at times uncomfortable, it’s a look into the group that once soared together, burned to ashes together, and now rises together one last time.

Customize your Sparky. Design the group’s “face”: choose appearance, gender, sexuality, and even performance style. Will you be a playful and adorable puppy-like person or a mysterious and surly cat-like person? Were you close with your fans or were you standoffish? Were you clean or did you basically live in the tabloids?

Shape your journey. Experience the rise of ICARIS, the events that shaped their history — some moments are inevitable; there is no saving what’s already lost. In the present timeline, however, you can navigate regrets and grief, reconnect with old friends, and influence how the reunion unfolds.

Romance across timelines. Pursue any of the five romantic options. Rekindle old flames or explore new connections.

Content warnings: realities of the industry, abusive workplaces and schedules, substance abuse, mentions/allusions to suicidal thoughts, mental illnesses, disordered eating. Possibly more.

ICARIS: the group that tried to conquer the sun

Looking back on the rise, the fall, and the enduring mythology of the group that once burned brighter than the sun.

There was once a time when the world thought ICARIS’ light would never dim. Since their earliest days, people who saw them recognized the incandescent blaze within them.

Imagine this: seven wide-eyed teenagers donned in an odd mix and match of cheap pieces of clothing, all trembling and bursting with a mixture of excitement and anxiety. They smile for their audience of twenty — a few of which are family members, friends, and staff. And, when asked by a gracious interviewer what they wanted to achieve as a new and risky idol band, the leader — straight shoulders, clenched fists, steady voice—declared, “We want to conquer the sun.”

Ridiculous. Audacious. Icarian. And yet when they performed their debut title track, “Dive” — with its bold and youthful chants of being “born for the burning light” and finally facing the sunrise after spending their whole lives in the night — the handful of strangers in the crowd simply knew. These were not ordinary teenagers chasing an impossible dream only to burn themselves out in the process. These were seven teenagers carrying their own furious, ferocious little suns, and they were, without a shred of a doubt, one day going to conquer the sun.

The rest of the First Light trilogy — Soar and Burn — continue their tales of their quest to reach the sun, to burn brighter than the sun. While real-world events did not exactly mirror these lyrics — “Burn” has a famous lyric of ‘dancing with the sun and we’re here to stay’ but at that time, they were barely selling half of their small theater venues for their very first tour — the members believed their end goal so much that it felt like they did achieve their goals. There was a confident, cocky look to them whenever they performed, a surety in their movement and their lyrics. It was difficult to ignore.

And somehow, those delusions turned into reality when the now legendary video of one of the members — nicknamed Sparky by the media because they lit the blaze that was ICARIS — dancing “Burn” went viral on YouTube. Audiences, craving a new era of idol bands and celebrities to obsess over, desperately looked for more. Previous performance videos were shared everywhere, Tumblr fan accounts popped up to share GIF-style recounting of their content, and the company’s decision to give them weekly vlog uploads and a seasonal variety show quickly paid off as episodes began racking up millions of views. The small but terrible fandom called Solace spread these clips — funny, played up arguments in their variety show, shipping fuel from their vlogs, clipped livestream moments — and within weeks, ICARIS was the talk of the town. They were just so lovable, so real and unbothered by the usual expectations on celebrities and idols. They were authentic in every way — from their lyrics to the way they’d speak to fans. At the heart of it all, they felt like seven friends who had somehow stumbled into becoming idols. The last stops of their First Light tour sold out quite quickly afterward and the reviews couldn’t stop singing praises about them — it wasn’t just Sparky who performed like that, it was everyone. These people were the real deal. They were everything the entertainment industry was missing — truthful, talented, tenacious.

This was only the beginning for our seven suns. Their next trilogy — Golden Hour, which consisted of albums Heatwave, Mirage, and Fever — marked their most emotional era yet, an era of some of their highest of highs and some of their lowest of lows. Solaces always say this was their hungriest era. They were quickly becoming the world’s newest obsession, and they still weren’t content. They broke records that had remained untouched for decades. They were on every billboard on every highway in every major city in the world. They were inescapable; they were inevitable. They got their very first Grammy nomination for their Mirage album and were selling out stadiums for their tour. But fame that big came with its own price to pay — a vicious, endless wave of hatred and criticism from people who decided they did not deserve any of what they had. Every conversation was nitpicked, every unflattering angle was spread around, every voice crack was “criticized” (heavy on the quotation marks) to death. The rumors piled up — this member was dating so-and-so, they didn’t really like each other, they were horrible people who burned babies weekly as a deal with the devil for their popularity and success. On top of that, they called themselves idols, which made a few people who already looked down on idols even crueler.

And what did ICARIS do? They released “Fever”, the ender of their second trilogy, and proudly declared that they did not care — they had “swallowed the sun” and it burned hotter inside them than the hate they so relentlessly received. To top it off, or perhaps to prove it, they spent their Golden Hour tour just… going crazy. Close to four hours of nonstop dancing, singing, and letting loose. Some people expressed their worries — at times, it genuinely seemed like the members were dying on stage — but they finished the tour with delirious smiles on their faces and newfound respect from even some of their biggest critics. They had survived one of the biggest hate trains in the entertainment industry through sheer will, passion for the art, and love for each other and their fans.

Their last trilogy — Crimson Tide, which featured albums Sunset, Campfire, and Ashes — was the raw truth under all their bold declarations. It is their most truthful — most uncomfortable — era and the one that marked the end of their careers. This was when they went from idols to true artists in the eyes of the public — they were human beings who were brave enough to share their most intimate thoughts in their songs and in their interviews. Critics to this day claim their Ashes album is one of the best albums in recent times, citing the bruisingly bare lyrics and the hauntingly hollow sound of most of the songs as its strongest points. Looking back, there were moments during the final trilogy where the members seemed exhausted in ways Solaces struggled to explain, but no one truly believed the group was in any danger of ending. If anything, the members seemed more devoted to one another than ever. Which is why no one truly expected what happened during the final encore concert of their Crimson Tide tour. When the members stood on stage with solemn expressions and livestreamed their closing remarks across all their social media accounts, few viewers were prepared to hear them announce an indefinite hiatus. And yet, still, true Solaces weren’t truly scared of the hiatus lasting — in fact, most expressed their relief that the members, who’d run toward the sun tirelessly for the last six and a half years, were finally getting their well-deserved rest.

To this day, I believe they never truly wanted to end. But tragedy struck a few months after their hiatus announcement and their youngest member perished in a house fire. I struggle to write more about this — which perhaps explains the abruptness of the sentence before this — so I will instead skip ahead to the part where, months later, Aurora Entertainment released a single announcement on their social media accounts that ICARIS would cease all group activities, effectively disbanding the band. They posted this on the company’s account, leaving the the ICARIS Twitter account frozen in time. Its final post remained a retweet from the youngest’ last message from the group’s informal fan-facing account — a space they had once used to speak more freely with Solaces. It was a heartfelt message to the fans and to the members thanking them for the years sent together, ending with excitement over the “inevitable reunion”.

Over time, ICARIS became less of a group and more of a cultural ghost. Their music remained unavoidable — overplayed in karaoke rooms, covered by rookies, mentioned routinely by people who “grew up with them” — even as the members themselves drifted into vastly different lives. Some stayed in the spotlight and thrived in solo careers, others chose to go back to being private citizens and take back the normal life their job had stolen from them. None of them ever mentioned ICARIS or the other members at length ever again, deftly avoiding questions with polite responses before eventually ignoring them altogether. And as the years crawled by with not a single public interaction between the members even though they still drifted in similar circles — most of them still had shares in Aurora Entertainment and the soloists still released music under this same company — hope for a reunion had slowly… burned out.

Six years later, on a seemingly ordinary Wednesday, Aurora Entertainment revived the ICARIS Twitter account and announced Ember Dawn, a one-time reunion album and a world tour to commemorate their 15th anniversary and to finally formally close off this chapter of their lives. A documentary series will cover all the events of this reunion — from the planning process to their last encore — with members rumored to speak about their seven years of ICARIS in greater depth than ever before. ICARIS had always released documentary series per trilogy. Their first, Sunborn, chronicled their pre-debut days and their under-appreciated First Light era. The second, Sundrunk, covered their highly-controversial Golden Hour era. And the final one, Sunfall, was released after the group’s disbandment. Each consisted of eight episodes, forming an unflinching portrait of their lives as idols, and as mythologized figures in the public’s eyes. Solaces are expecting this next documentary, titled Sunbound, to be just as devastating.

thank you!

oof, i'm struggling to think of a different fun fact for every single one so i'll just list off what i have currently.

angel loves horror movies and always picks the grossest and longest ones when it's their turn to pick for movie night just to see the other members suffer (they definitely cackle while watching)

jiwon is a mess in the kitchen and is banned by the members to ever hold a knife, devan is the one who cooks for the members. despite owning a family restaurant, cloud actually also sucks at cooking (they're learning now!). saint cooks sometimes too but only if they're in the mood for it and there's music playing. cooking becomes an event when saint is in on it so it's for special days and most days devan kicks them out of the kitchen for bothering them.

mitsuki used to have a ranking of their members to determine who their current favorite was and while the others liked to pretend they didn't care, they'd compete for the top spot. the truth is, the ranking is bullshit and randomized and mitsuki just do it so the others would dote on them more.

kila is a great cook and is good at housework but they pretend like they're spoiled and clueless so no one can order them around. they're also the complete opposite of jiwon in terms of relationship to religion--they fucking hate religion.

valentine has never had a relationship before meeting sparky so their views on love and romance were idealistic--a surprising fact considering how cold they come off at first. they have a collection of romance books (might have some of tatum's there).

tatum takes a lot of inspiration from icaris songs to write. their writing playlists have plenty of icaris songs and you know that game where someone has an artist's discography on shuffle and someone else has to guess the song quickly? tatum will probably be able to guess all of icaris' songs in the first few seconds but no one will ever know cause they would never answer. you think their niece is the biggest fan of icaris? think again, it's actually tatum themself.

No two fans can agree on who Sparky truly is. To some, they were the magnetic center of ICARIS, the member whose raw charisma lit the spark of the ICARIS blaze. To others, it’s their personality and their different dynamics with the rest of the members that really speak of who they are. Some might remember countless viral moments — impossibly beautiful red carpet looks, ethereal on-stage moments, heartwarming or funny fan interactions — while others might insist on talking about their scandals — dating rumors, blind items, un-“idol-like” behavior.

Perhaps this is why discussions surrounding Sparky rarely settle on a single, peaceful conclusion. The public continues to argue on which version of them was the “real” one: the ambitious but authentic rookie who vowed to reach the sun alongside the members; the untouchable, almost mythical celebrity at the peak of the group’s fame; or the increasingly difficult to understand figure by the group’s final years. Some may even add in to the conversation: maybe they were someone the public never truly knew. Even now, fifteen years after ICARIS’ debut, Sparky remains impossible to define. And perhaps that is what makes them so alluring.

the characters’ ages at the start of the past timeline and at the start of the present timeline, in age order (adding the rest of the members too):

valentine: 21 years old at the start but 24/25 when they meet sparky (sparky is 20/21). 35 during the reunion. kila: 20 at the start, but 23/24 when they meet sparky (sparky is 20/21). 34 at the reunion. saint: 18 and a half at the start, 32 and a half at reunion. jiwon: 17 and a half at the start, 31 and a half at reunion. sparky: almost 17 at the start, almost 31 at reunion tatum: 16/17 at the start, 30/31 at reunion devan and angel: 16 years old at the start, 30 years old at reunion (angel is three months younger so turning 16, turning 30) cloud: 15 years old at the start, 29 years old at the reunion mitsuki: 14 years old at the start, would’ve been 28 by reunion.

the “start” is predebut, so a full year before their debut at 2012. present time is 2025, 2 full years before their actual 15th anniversary. aaaand i just realized i worded the main post wrong because their album would’ve been released in 2026… the actual 15th anniversary will be their last concert lol… i’ll deal with that later. timelines are confusing for at this time even though i have it all written down.

but yeah, hope that isn’t as confusing to you as it is to me, and unless i majorly confused myself while writing those down i think those are accurate.

There wasn’t much publicly known about Tatum Whitman back during the height of ICARIS’ fame. Older Solaces believed they were the trainee the members often spoke of — the one let go right before the final round of evaluations for ICARIS. Saint had called them “nice” before, while Angel had said they were “one of the kindest trainees I’d met” during a roundtable where the group spoke of their pre-debut days, but neither used Tatum’s name and only called them “Mousey” — apparently because of their messy brown hair.

The image of “Tatum” the general public knows best is this: in their hometown city, covered in layers to fight off the early winter chill, with a stroller right between them and Sparky. The entire world had descended into chaos mere moments after the paparazzi shots were posted — no one could’ve ever expected at the time that any member of ICARIS would have a secret child they were keeping hidden. For hours, it was endless conspiracy theories and speculations about the person next to Sparky. People they went to school with had gone online to claim they’d been dating since high school; others had debunked this with swiftness and claimed they were simply childhood best friends and Sparky was probably only comforting Tatum about the recent death of Tatum’s older sister. Aurora Entertainment had been quiet for those hours until, almost nearing midnight, they’d released one official statement: there was nothing romantic, and it was only two old friends catching up with each other. When Sparky had gone back from their trip weeks later, they’d repeated the same thing: “Just a childhood friend; the baby is their niece.” Some have accepted that claim, but others still firmly believe Sparky is raising a child with their childhood best friend.

Tatum Whitman today is an author with a few romance books under their belt. Their most popular one is about a pop star who had gone home for the holidays and reunited with their first love. It’s a deeply complex piece of work about how humans grow and change over the years, but people rarely speak of the writing itself. What’s more important is that it is eerily similar to what the rumors said about their relationship with Sparky, which had made a few more intense fans bombard their ratings with 1 stars. When asked about it, however, Tatum clarified that it was simply fiction and that they’d gotten the idea from a student of theirs.

Hoshino Mitsuki is always the member most difficult to write—talk—about. They weren’t hard to pin down like Sparky was, nor did they have multiple controversies like Devan did, but everything that unfolded about them was so terribly tragic to think about. There is too much and too little to be said about the ball of sunshine, source of hope, brighter-than-the-sun that was Hoshino Mitsuki, and even their members refuse to speak about them at length. But for the sake of this feature article, and because we all believe that Mitsuki deserves to be remembered as the beautiful human being they were, I shall try.

Hoshino Mitsuki was the youngest of all the trainees under Elysium Entertainment, having entered the system at just 12 and a half years old. They got in through an audition held in Japan, and their now famous audition video is a controversial one even to this day. They barely had the skills, and it showed to an almost embarrassing degree—forgot their lines and confidently sang the incorrect notes, stumbled all over their feet and messed up the blockings—but anyone watching would agree that the beaming smile they had on as they performed was hypnotizing. It was like they were having the time of their life despite all the mistakes they were making. “It was impossible to ignore,” reasoned one of the people who’d agreed to accept Mitsuki into the program, “they simply belonged on stage.” When they were flown to California from Japan, Mitsuki barely knew any English aside from “thank you,” “sorry,” and “when is lunchtime?”—a little tidbit they liked to laugh about until their last days. They had to rely on Jiwon, who was fluent in both English and Japanese, to translate for them and to teach them English until they were confident enough to handle conversations on their own—this is quite obvious in the way they’d taken all of Jiwon’s English-speaking quirks at first before their way of speaking became a blend of all the other members’ quirks and accents.

Mitsuki was the perfect mix of all the other members—they had Jiwon’s strong sense of professionalism and Saint’s cheerleader-like qualities; they possessed Sparky’s raw charisma and Devan’s risky boldness; and they learned eloquence during interviews from Angel and tenderness and calmness during stressful times from Cloud. This is perhaps because they had to rely on the other members for ten whole years—their performative years at that—and because it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the members, though not much older, essentially raised Mitsuki. They turned Mitsuki from someone who could barely carry a note and could only flap their arms to someone who could cover the more skilled members’ lines when they were sick and someone who had plenty of center positions during dance breaks. Plenty of behind-the-scenes footage supports the idea that the members raised Mitsuki, as they were often shown to be doting on the youngest—reminding them to eat, spending hours in the arcade just to get the toy they wanted from a claw machine, and taking them on family trips on days off. But it wasn’t a one-sided relationship; all the members have at least once voiced out that Mitsuki was a driving force for the group to keep continuing even when times were hard. They’d mentioned Mitsuki as their cheerleader during their dispute with the company, eagerly looking forward to standing on stage again with “hearts of rookies” even though things seemed dire for the other members.

Mitsuki was also a big fan of “capturing the moment.” They were often seen with video and film cameras, trailing after the other members to make sure their memories were stored forever. They were the brain behind most of the group’s extra content—vlogs, variety content, and even the trilogy documentaries that first came from a scrapped documentary featuring their pre-debut days. Half the reason why people fell for ICARIS was their authenticity, their personalities, and their vastly different relationship dynamics—we wouldn’t have seen so much of these without Mitsuki’s genius. Part of this is also because Mitsuki truly treasured fan interactions, posting almost daily and replying endlessly to fans whenever they had time. When the pandemic hit and we were all forced to stay indoors, Mitsuki went live almost every single day just to keep fans company, chatting and singing with Solaces as though they were talking with friends and not strangers. Mitsuki, at this time, was the Solaces’ solace. The one constant source of happiness when the world had turned so dreary.

Perhaps this is why their death hurt so much. It would’ve hurt even if they weren’t as big with interactions as they were, but Mitsuki being such a big source of joy and strength during those trying times, being so present, made their sudden absence so jarring. Their death shook the entire world—I’d say it’s almost impossible for people to not know about the incident. We’d seen the blurry videos of the members in different states of distress waiting for news from the firefighters, taken from a helicopter view of Mitsuki’s mansion. We all read the speculation, the rumors, the insults hurled at each member before Jiwon, on their personal account, had gone online and left a long and firm message about respecting the grieving members and the deceased by stopping all the absurd speculations. We saw how the group slowly drifted apart—updates together quickly going down in numbers—and we all know that the disbandment announcement just two months later was inevitable.

A house fire, something so easily avoidable cutting someone’s precious life short. No foul play, no self-harm, just a cigarette butt not snuffed out completely and sleeping pills to combat Mitsuki’s lifelong problems with insomnia. Mitsuki, who had spent half their life in the pressure cooker they call the idol industry, gone so quickly. It was unfair; it was difficult to accept. Until now, with the announcement of a full group—as full as they can be, at least—album drop and a tour, Mitsuki’s ghost haunts everything. They’re the most mentioned name—the highest trending name when the news first came out—and some people are understandably upset and uneasy about the reunion. ICARIS had never been anything but seven. Even with sick members or those who had to be absent for a while due to other responsibilities, the rest of the members never failed to talk about them until it felt like their absence wasn’t too big. With Mitsuki truly gone, it’s difficult to imagine how this album drop and tour will go in regards to Mitsuki’s absence.

Angel Matisse is an angel in every sense of the word: ethereal, aloof, terrifying. They entered the showbiz industry at barely five years old; some might remember their incredible performances in some well-known children’s movies and some bigger blockbusters. Their mother stood as their manager for their acting career, accompanying them to shoots and making connections for them until they were scouted by an Elysium Entertainment worker just three months before the final lineup of ICARIS was decided.

Angel has the shortest training period out of the entire group, which was quite evident when they first debuted—they visibly lacked in singing and dancing for the first two years of their career as an idol. However, one thing about ICARIS is that the members always strive to be better. Angel showed extraordinary growth in both singing and dancing in their years as an ICARIS member, so much so that the gap between them and the more skilled members lessened considerably and they were seen as not just the visual of the group, but something more integral to the dance formations and songs. As the visual of the group, however, they were the first face people often noticed—full lips, long lashes, tall cheekbones. Angel was, well, an angel on Earth. It is also possibly this beauty of theirs that has people so intimidated by them, along with their default blank expression and dry humor. The members often raved about how cute and goofy Angel was behind the scenes, and fans did get to have a little peek into this Angel through their variety content and documentaries. Another fact that most people might not know about Angel Matisse is that they were behind most of the group’s creative direction. With prior conversations and agreements with the members made beforehand, they worked closely with the professional creative team to give the group a more personalized and authentic image. They also co-directed and did the storyboard for all of the group’s music videos, using their prior background in filmmaking to help them. Though most people would simply call them the visual of the group, Angel held a special and irreplaceable spot in the group.

After the group’s untimely disbandment, Angel left the limelight for two years before showing up again as an actor. Since then, they had a long and tumultuous journey to the top—their public dispute with their mother over marrying their same-sex childhood friend was the internet’s favorite story for quite some time—but they ultimately came out victorious with a few awards now under their belt. With now two children, Angel is gradually shifting to directing instead of acting.