So while SecUnit is rebuilding itself after the catastrophic shutdown, it has this exchange with Gurathin:
"I don't want to be a pet robot."
"I don't think anyone wants that."
After which, we get this sequence of events:
Arada offers it a job. Gurathin says she should pay it with hard currency cards, which can be used anywhere it travels to. (We learn later that Preservation citizens use a complicated bartering system, so Arada might not have considered hard currency otherwise.) Then Pin-Lee comes in, gives SecUnit some hard currency cards just to have, as well as fake IDs that Gurathin specifically made for it, and tells it that it's not a pet.
Up until the "pet robot" exchange, SecUnit has said two things: "Fine" and a canned buffer phrase about searching for information. The first full sentence it says is "I don't want to be a pet robot." Gurathin holds his shit together until he’s with Pin-Lee (maybe others, but definitely her), and then immediately crashes out hard enough that the two decide to make sure SecUnit has enough hard currency cards and fake IDs to stay on the run forever if it'll make it feel slightly less like a pet robot.
This goes beyond down to clown. They're the whole damn circus at this point.