[party post] if it looks like winning, you haven't been.

[beyondriftmods]

Dear Rifters

Comments

[daredtobelieve]

Helen does not look amused. When she woke up this morning, Helen discovered that her voice was gone entirely. Every attempt to make any sort of noise results in failure. Thankfully, she made this discovery before leaving to head out into the world and managed to find a pad of paper and a pen to keep with her, just in case. Still, she's not at all pleased with this turn of events.

And of course, a bad day just gets worse, because Helen is only out and about for something like five minutes before she accidentally drops her pen and it slips into a sewer drain.

Really... She mouthes, angrily, staring at the ground as if gravity itself is to blame.

[lefttogive]

John should have known, stepping out of the Crowbar, that things would be getting a little crazy today. He'd forgotten the date, and once he'd remembered, he'd actually said Shitfuckbears out loud. The Crowbar will be even busier if people are looking to Sonny to solve their problems.

Curses. Whatever. They're bad and the Rift never spares prisoners.

When he finds Helen, he detects the anger immediately. John approaches her with mild concern, arms folded across his chest. "Helen?"

[daredtobelieve]

John Her mouth forms the word but no sound comes out. Of course. She rolls her eyes and puts a hand to her forehead in a frustrated fashion. After a moment, her hand drops and she points to her throat while shaking her head. She rattles off a sentence without a single sound escaping her. Helen then holds up her pad of paper and mimes the action of writing before pointing down to the ground, towards the storm drain.

She's never appreciated being able to vocalize until today.

[lefttogive]

"Aw, shit," he mutters underneath his breath. There are all sorts of things the Rift inflicts on Chicago's citizens, but literally taking away her voice? Not cool, Rift. Not cool. It doesn't take long for him to piece that together, either.

He plucks a pen from out of his breast pocket to hand over to her, in case she actually does want to write things. "You want to head over to the Crowbar with me? My brother often knows how to fix a lot of the shit the Rift likes sending people's ways. I'm not saying it might work, but it's... something."

John places a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

[daredtobelieve]

Helen takes the pen gratefully and brings it to the paper, scrawling out a brief note. She turns the pad of paper around while wearing a distressing smile on her face. The paper reads:

Thank you. The Crowbar sounds lovely. Presuming you mean to buy me a strong drink, that is.

She flips the page over to have a blank one ready for any additional notes she may need to write in a pinch, then gestures for him to lead the way.

[lefttogive]

John chuckles quietly and he lifts up his arm, in case she wants to take it, before he leads the way. "Naturally, I would buy you a strong drink. Every strong drink that there is, it would be yours. Don't think anybody suffering from Rift-related maladies today doesn't deserve it."

They keep walking, and in his attempt to cheer her up, he adds:

"This one time? The Rift made it so a guy could only walk backwards. And that didn't just last for a day. That was like, his Rift ability."

[daredtobelieve]

Helen takes his arm when offered, because... well it certainly would be rude to refuse it, wouldn't it? Besides, John has been nothing but incredibly helpful whenever Helen finds herself in need, so she's come to be rather fond of him. Unfortunately, she was no good for conversation, especially with an arm occupied around his. So she just smiles and nods her head to his admission to purchase her a drink.

A silent laugh bubbles from her, or it would if anything coming from her had the ability to make a sound. She covers her mouth with her free hand, though, and shakes her head at the notion of a man walking backwards for his entire duration of his time in Chicago.

[lefttogive]

The reaction has him grinning wider. "I'm serious, I can't even make stuff like that up. The guy would try to walk normally and you'd think he was trying out Michael Jackson's moonwalking. All the time. Might've just ended up using a wheelchair, if I was him."

But then, maybe the wheelchair would only work backwards, too.

Once they reach the Crowbar, he'll open the door for her. "Make yourself at home, Helen. I'll ask my brother if there's anything that might help with bringing your voice back and in the meantime, help yourself to whatever you'd like to drink."

[daredtobelieve]

Helen waves a hand to get him to stop because she's finding this whole thing ridiculous and can't stop laughing- which is a very strange thing to do when you can't make a sound. It's disturbing. Thankfully, she's calmed down by the time they reach the bar. She finds a seat at the bar and ponders her drink options for a moment while John is away.

She grabs the attention of someone and has them help her order a strongly mixed drink. Once it arrives, she takes a hefty drink and continues to wait for one or both brothers to emerge.

Helen, I apologize in advance.

[pwnspatrickjane]

It's possible that as this happens, there is a distinct rumble and the sound of the Oscar Meyer theme song coming from the distance. Is this some great hero coming to save the day? Is this the long lost vagabond that the rift has been looking for to restore order and retrieve pens for the world over?

... No, it's only Shawn Spencer, doing his due diligence to make sure that the people of the rift have their little karma boost for the day.

He stops when he sees the woman looking angry on the side of the road, and he makes his way through the back to the window, peering out at her over the ledge.

"You look like you could use a free hot dog."

ahahah ilu

[daredtobelieve]

Helen casts her annoyed gaze up towards the sound of a new, unfamiliar voice. Of all the ways to waste a few precious words, she cannot imagine anything more ridiculous to say to another person. She simply stares at him for a moment, mouth half open. Even if she could speak, she isn't sure what she would say to something like that.

She shakes her head to his offer, but steps up to his... vehicle. She mimes writing with a pen as a way of asking if he has one. She's not going to get very far without one, is she?

<3

[pwnspatrickjane]

A pen! He has one of those!

.... Where did he put it.

"One second," he says, holding up a finger and disappearing back into the interior of the wiener mobile. There's some rattling, maybe a crash or two, and eventually he returns with what is, in fact, a pen.

It just might also have a giant blinking light on top of it.

"There you go."

[daredtobelieve]

Helen waits impatiently until Shawn returns with a pen. Once he hands it over, she stares at it. Her gaze drifts back to the owner of such a ridiculous device. Helen shakes her head but presses the pen to paper to scrawl out a message.

Thank you. It appears that I've lost the ability to speak. It happened suddenly. Have you seen or heard of any other strange occurrences today?

[pwnspatrickjane]

Shawn leans forward to look at the message scribbled on the paper before nodding. Yes, he's seen it. It's hard not to on a day like today.

"Yeah. That would be the rift."

[daredtobelieve]

Helen is not pleased with that answer and goes back to her paper. Once done, she turns the paper so that he can read the next bit of her message.

Yes, I'd assumed that. Is there any way to reverse the effects?

[pwnspatrickjane]

He shakes his head. "I wish I could tell you, but there isn't. Far as we can tell, it's over when the rift declares it over."