All Q fans who write hurt/comfort, or who enjoy writing stories in which their favorite characters are put through hell, have at one point or another had to face the greatest difficulty of their careers in dealing with Q, namely: how do you hurt an omnipotent being?
Fortunately, Gene Roddenberry, in his infinite wisdom :-), provided us poor fanfic writers with an outlet. Originally the episode "Deja Q" was supposed to be about Q faking the loss of his powers and engineering an impending war between the Klingon Empire and the Federation, so he could jump in and look like a hero. Roddenberry insisted that the story be rewritten so that Q would actually lose his powers, and thus not only set up an important step in the future development of the character as he appears on Star Trek, but gave all us fanfic writers a great new tool to put poor Q through hell.
Not all "Q-loses-his-powers" stories are direct spinoffs of "Deja Q", of course. In fact, most aren't. But I personally have always been troubled by the "Whoops! Q screwed up again! Guess the Continuum took his powers!" kind of story-- it seems to me that if you are a reasonably intelligent being, as Q is purported to be, and something that devastating happens to you, you don't risk letting it happen again for a few moments of amusement. (It can be done, of course-- in fact now I'm writing one myself in which Q loses his powers because he defies the Continuum to commit an act we would see as moral and necessary, but was a violation of his probation. But a lot of them date back to the days when Q fanfic was generally of the form "Q is an ass and gets a comeuppance.") Such stories make little sense to me outside of the context of "Deja Q" spinoffs. So I myself have always preferred direct spinoffs from "Deja Q". I believe my "Only Human" was the first story in the genre, and it inspired most of them, but I've since seen a few AU's that came up with the idea independently.
Note that these fan stories are not intended for profit, nor are they intended to infringe on Paramount's copyright. They are for non-profit purposes only, and may only be distributed electronically (that means you can't print them out and publish them in a fanzine without express permission from the authors.) Note also that all these stories contain depictions of human sexuality, and some may also contain some degree of violence.
The Only Human Tree (Alara Rogers and Mercutio)
After Q lost his powers, he was shipped off to Starbase 56 to be a science consultant for the Federation, where in short order he managed to completely alienate everyone he works with and ended up becoming more and more depressed. Stories in this tree all take place in alternate spinoffs of the same continuity. The stories contain reasonably graphic depictions of heterosexual and homosexual activity.
Familiar Strangers (Alara Rogers)
At a diplomatic conference with a really unpleasant government, Picard encounters a female sex slave who claims she can give him an alternative to treating with said really unpleasant government if he can get her out of here. The relationship to Q involves a metaphorical green, wet herring sitting on the wall, but at least it doesn't whistle. The story contains graphic depictions of consensual heterosexual activity, rape, and torture, and discusses the impact of such on the psyche. If you know what the term "hurt/comfort" means, this is it. Book I complete as of 1/8/03.
The Q Who Fell To Earth by Jeanita Danzik
Right after losing his powers Q meets a high-powered lawyer who manages to get him a small fortune for his abilities and knowledge, and he ends up becoming a wealthy playboy on Risa, which doesn't actually leave him very happy. Story contains two reasonably graphic male/male scenes, and some frank discussion of masturbation, but sex is only one small part to this story.
Although the premise to this story is theoretically that Q stays aboard the Enterprise after the events of Deja Q and not getting his powers back, actually he's spent some time being a kidnap victim and a science advisor to hedonistic aliens. Ratings: explicit m/f and m/m sex in Chapter 4, also some violence and a rape attempt. Incomplete but being worked on.
Lowest Common Denominator by Queriana
An AU spinoff of "Of Kings and Men" where things diverge right after Chp. 4 pt I. The "present" portion of the story takes place as an alternate to the episode "Gambit." Searching for Picard, Riker and Troi encounter Q, who they'd thought to be dead, as a hard-bitten drug smuggler. Contains m/m relationships and implication of P/Q friendship at least. Ratings: this is the R-rated version and contains nothing more explicit than masturbation. Queriana intends to write an NC-17 version later. Incomplete but being worked on. Has a livejournal companion where snippets of the story are published and the author makes comments -- Mortal Q.
This is quite short. Q stayed aboard the Enterprise after not getting his powers back. Written for a theme of "Picard/Q, carnality", but quite PG-rated; contains only one m/m kiss.
The Closest Thing to a Friend by JM
A drabble, beating out Andraste's "Carnal Pleasures" for shortest story on page. Totally PG.
Working In Groups by Alara Rogers
This is Deja Q, the anti-deus-ex-machina remix. What if the Q Continuum had not intervened in any way after Q's selfless act? Absolutely PG rated. No one has sex or even thinks about it much. And I am so very weak for posting it here because it's not finished and I wanted to wait until it was done, but hey, maybe this will tell me who's actually reading this page. :-)
Sliding Doors by Entipy of Nothing
Picard, Troi, Beverly and Guinan are quantum-swapped into an alternate universe where the Federation is losing a war with the Klingons and Q is human, aboard Enterprise, and dying. Somehow the Romulan kidnapping of Wesley Crusher and the presence of the Borg is connected to the existence of this rift in space-time... Incomplete.
Q-ology by Jeff Stoneking
Q is dead, murdered after having become human. Picard is dead, assassinated by the same people who killed Q. Neither of them are really happy about these developments. This story starts with a strong premise but turns kind of incoherent by the end; nonetheless, this is an AU to Deja Q, and so I list it here.
Coming soon, hopefully:
Heylir's "To Be Human", a new DQ spinoff translated from the Russian, with a very different outlook than any of the existing stories so far -- will be done as fast as Heylir can type it and I can translate it (BTW, if anyone out there is actually *good* at translating Russian, please contact me!)