Appeal for help gets nothing or nothing special (2-2)
I believe the answer is:
so-so
'nothing special' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'appeal for help gets nothing' is the wordplay.
'appeal for help' becomes 'sos' (I've seen this before).
'gets' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'sos'+'o'='SO-SO'
'or' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for so-so that I've seen before include "Fair to middling" , "Barely passable" , "Native of Seville" , "Tolerable, indifferent" , "just about adequate" .)