When it comes to affairs of the heart, Ryan Conklin has a strong sense of duty to intercede and protect his fellow man from being hurt when he perceives that a guy is being cheated on or taken advantage of. A good example of Ryan's protective nature in action was the situation with Devyn Simone during The Real World Brooklyn when it appeared that Devyn was being serious with two guys at the same time. It bothered Ryan a great deal to think that they were spending a lot of money on Devyn, both thinking that they were the main guy in her life.To discuss what could be done to help the Devyn suitors, Ryan spoke with Scott Herman and JD Ordonez in a clandestine meeting in the confessional. After a brief description of the situation, Ryan adamantly stated that he didn't like it, and that the whole thing fell under the auspices of the "guy code", which required that other guys in the vicinity do something about it. In response to a suggestion by JD that nevertheless it was Devyn's business, Ryan gave his justification by saying, "I'm surrounded by it. I live with it. It's my business."
Furthermore, Ryan gave his moral reasoning for getting involved with Devyn's affairs in particular, by explaining that "All girls are b|tches. It's only a matter to what degree. This girl is like way up there. She's a big b|tch. Fabulous, kiss my ass - she's a b|tch."
Then to explain his passion for doing something to help Devyn boyfriend number one, Ryan shared with Scott and JD the compassion he felt for him. Ryan said he believed that the boyfriend likely had low self-esteem and that Devyn was manipulating that trait to her advantage.
There was no clear cut plan from the meeting but it at least provided the opportunity for Ryan to make his views clear and to set the stage for enlisting the other guys to join with him in helping a brother out.
The meeting also showed that Ryan's sense of male fellowship extended even to incoherent drunk gay men like JD, who happily babbled nonsense as Ryan was trying to get his point across. Ryan let JD stick around when JD exposed his butt crack, but when JD started to mimic oral sex on the hanging microphone, Ryan's sense of propriety prompted him to gently talk JD out of it. However, knowing what JD wanted to do, Ryan let Chet Cannon enter the room and let Chet fend for himself from his not-so-secret admirer JD. The guy code extends to protecting guys from girls, not from each other.
