Austen is an upbeat, 18 year old girl who falls in love with Sunati. She has an immune condition that denies her the ability to apply mods, or modifications, to her appearance or body. If it is an emergency, doctors are able to modify her, but only under strict conditions and long periods of time. She can be prickly and, unlike a perfect-world scenario, fights back when someone says something about her condition, This causes her and Sunati's relationship to derail a bit at some points, but like any relationship (almost), they make up. Throughout the story, Austen learns about patience and clear communication, but it's Sunati who realizes that her previous behavior was wrong and changes accordingly. She is still in school studying to be a geneticist because she wants to find a cure for Egan's (or at least shine some light on it). She finds school difficult, because she can't use any memory or focus mods. On top of this, she goes to the gym regularly because she finds herself self-conscious about her weight.