The Startip Stealers

Jonah's brain wraps around the plume of smoke from his marlie.  Feelings of unease course through his veins.

Why the hell is living in Italy so difficult? he ponders... why if I was born with a good luck star?

"Careful, see, Stella? You really need to be very careful with a new breed of thieves, they're the Startip Stealers. People think one is born with a good luck star that stays there forever... well, as Anne Bancroft's husband would write: not!!! Sometimes they leave. Sometimes they die. And sometimes, Stella, they get the startips cut off inadvertently.
Those unfortunate stars start bleeding their mojo stardust right out of their broken tips. And nobody knows what can happen to them."