Q: Oh, I have several!

Picard: Alright.

Q: Pettiness...

Q: ...and anger.

Picard: That's it?

Picard: You better have a good reason for this, Q.

Q: Oh, I have several!

Picard: Alright.

Q: Just choose your favourite! ;D

#Q totally would#and possibly even start bragging to Picard about it. Jean-Luc won’t even need to say or do anything else#Q would start this enormous monologue about it and god forbid if someone tries to stop him from speaking out about what Picard lost#by not going with him#Q possibly took full offense when Picard didn’t accept his offer and now Q’s about to let all his feelings about it out

Listen, Picard wouldn’t even lie to some extent. Because there might be a chance of Q finding out about the distraction, but Q would absolutely hate being obviously lied to. 

So he doesn’t straight up say it. More like implies it in ways that kind of reflect the truth. 

Did he regret not taking Q up on his offer? He is an archeology nerd. You can’t tell me that he hasn’t looked at an artifiact wondering just what it was used for or read up on interesting cultures and wished he could know more about it. And then the thought comes, that he knows a certain someone who could show him. Someone who did offer to show him whatever he wanted. And he did seem to hesitate a bit before his rejection in Qpid.

What he doesn’t tell Q is, that he is more than willing to lose that knowledge than risk than becoming Qs ‘companion’ (or toy as Picard would see it). 

Was he jealous of Vash? Kind of. It must have hurt his ego/self-esteem a bit to see both Q and Vash replace him. 

But Q takes it as jealousy as Picard admits that “It stung a little bit when I watched you leave with Vash. Not necessarily because Vash seemed so eager to leave, but” and here Picard would not be able to look at Q “because you found someone to replace me so easily.”

And Q would be sceptic at first, but since he sees/senses that Picard is telling the truth, nothing else would matter. 

It’s all his bruised ego wanted to hear. So of course, he goes on a rant. As you put it, about all the things Picard missed. About how Q could have taken him anywhere. That all the things Picard has seen during his entire lifetime are nothing compared to what he could show him. 

That a mortal like him should be grateful for Qs offer and interest. 

And so on and on. Picard just sits there, wondering if Q would even notice if he left. 

But then Q holds still in an almost unnatural way. No breath, no movement, nothing. Because Picard admitting to have been hurt by the thought of Q replacing him only now fully registered in his conscience.

The arrogance and aloofness disappears as he turns to Picard.

“Oh, but I could never replace you, Jean-Luc”

Picard immediatly starts missing the monologue. 

“That’s…good to know, Q.” 

“She was just the consolation prize.”

Picard is sure that Q seems to think of the way he smiles at Picard and comes closer to him as reassuring. It’s anything but.

“No one could replace you. Believe me, I have looked.”

If Riker doesn’t call him immediatly to give him the signal, that they are done, he is going to hold a mandatory meeting on efficiency during dire situations once he gets back. 

“But tell me again, were you truly jealous of her?” 

And there is the familiar arrogance. Something Picard actually knows how to work with. 

While he would normally deny it, he needs Qs ego to be in a good shape and his mood to be benevolent one once he finds out about what his crew has been up to during this whole ordeal. 

“Yes”

The whole room changes and Picard suddenly finds himself in what he can only describe as on overdone parody of a french restaurant in front of an equally overdone candlelight dinner. And were those violine players?

Perhaps this is just another one of Qs games. Yes, that must be it. Q has seen past his implications and distraction and this is Qs form of taking revenge while having fun. Any second Q is going to drop the charade and laugh at him for believing this madness. 

“I knew, Jean-Luc. I knew it. Sooner or later you would come to your senses and realize your true feelings for me. The others called me delusional, but once again you prove them wrong.”

That would go from hilarious to worrying and terrifying so fast, specially if Picard thinks it’s one of Q’s games, in a situation like this Q would totally have a tantrum about it and even possibly blame Picard for it

“Q this is far too ridiculous even for one of your games!”

“Game?” the music and ambient around them freezes “What do you mean by that, I’m here opening my heart after finally learning you feel the same and yet you call it a game!?”

Exhausted by what Picard feels is madness he lashes out irritated “Stop it already Q, you know very well that I feel nothing about you.”

“Nothing?” Q laughs “Oh please, I’m most certain that you feel quite much about me or else you wouldn’t be jealous of Vash!”

At that moment Picard’s commander badge beps, it was code between Riker and Picard, the signal. The little sound attracted Q’s attention and in a moment his pupils went pitch black in realization.

“So that’s it, you decided to play fiddle with a god’s feelings to distract him” with a sudden motion Q teleported right in front of Jean-Luc staring deeply with his dark cosmic eyes into the human’s stern ones “You should feel very ashamed of yourself Picard, you’re much better than this.”

Taking a step to gather composure and space Picard attacked back “You who twisted my own words yourself, I have no fault on what you choose to believe about them!” still believing, hoping! This was yet again another of Q’s games.

The room around them started melting, tears leaking from Q’s human face while still angrily staring deeply at Picard’s hazel eyes, the color of his tears are black as the endless space within the cosmos, it was even possible seeing stars circulating them.

To be fair to Picard, he still thinks or hopes at this point that Qs feelings are platonic and not romantic in nature. I do not think that Picard had any intention of ‘playing fiddle’ with Qs feelings. To him, he intended to give Q a bit of an ego trip, by admitting he kind of regrets not taking Q up on his offer to go on a trip to an ancient civilization. 

He was jealous of Vash, because through Q she would see things, he would probably never see. Also the sting to his ego at being easily replaced as Qs new subject of obsession/interest. 

The problem is, that Q interpreted the jealousy part as in Picard was jealous of Vash because of the same reason Q was jealous of her. Q was jealous of Vash, because she was Picards love interest at the time. So to Q, when Picard talked about replacement and jealousy, he thought that Picard was admitting to having felt a jealousy at thought of Vash being Qs new love interest. 

I do not think, that even if Picard doesn’t feel anything for Q, he would be cruel enough to play with his feeling like that if he truly knew about them. 

But what was he supposed to do? 

Pretend for the rest of his live/eternity that Q hasn’t completely misinterpreted his words?

I wonder if Picard still hopes Q is just playing pretend, after seeing him crying. or at least what seems to humans like crying and losing control over his powers. 

Because on one hand, Q would never show this kind of vulnerability willingly. Even when playing pretend. He was kicked of the Continuum and thrown nacked and as Troi explained terrified on the bridge of the Enterprise and he still didn’t display anywhere near the weakness like in this.

On the other side realizing that you just broke the heart/are in the process of breaking the heart of  an eldritch allmighty being beyond your comprehension, who is also the judge of humanity is not a very comforting realization. 

Especially when said being is losing their composure and control right in front of your eyes and you can see the heartbreak, hurt, anger and their love for you. 

Besides, Picard is not on the ship. He is in a place Q spontanously made up in his euphoria. Said place is currently dissolving into nothingness around you. 

Also, Q may be unwilling to kill/harm him, but who is to say that counts for anyone else. 

But still, this is a part in their dynamic I always found interesting as well. And I think Q is really terrified and furious about it. That a human has the power to hurt him in ways even the Continuum can’t. 

It’s a rather strange situation now, isn’t is? You have two people standing in frontof each other each one hoping the other one is just joking/or playing with them (because Q would deep down still hope that Picard was lying when he said that he felt nothing for him. A part of him still hopes/thinks that what Picard is saying is just denial. He was so incredibly happyy when he thought his love was returned and no matter what he still wants to feel that way again. Especiall now that he tasted the misery of heartbreak and sadness)

P. S.: Another problem I could see is that due to being a hive mind, the other Q can feel a part of the anger and heartbreak, and I do not think they would like it. Now in this case I don’t think their collective disapproval would be an Q, because they must be terrified as well. A Q losing control is a very dangerous thing and saying anything in the lines of ‘I told you so’ would only make it worse. Besides, they can also feel a second hand heartbreak and it is a horrible feeling. 

In this I think there would be a sort of solidarity or at least a try to calm Q down in the hopes of calming themselves and the rest of the hive down. 

“He didn’t mean it like that.” “You know how mortals are, they just do and say things sometimes that are completely untrue” 

Thank you for the compliment, Yourbuerokrat! I can’t really indulge myself on actually writing dialogue or a scene right now but I needed to reply this NOW; this is actually my vibe on writing Qcard I’m more of a dark, angst writer and scenarios like this are a passion and having fights and conflicts attracts my attention more than cutesy things, and easier to write and feel like writing, so in any case similar things like this will possibly come from me in the future although I don’t think I could go to that “dark”(in the mention that Q would kill someone close to Picard)

(Also shout out to @adrenalineangel ’s tags about this post, glad that you liked my and yourbuerokrat’s exchanges)

Picard really never did even think that saying he was jealous of Vash would get such a reaction and conclusion from Q, it really was more a “I need to find a distraction, now!” moment and the best he could think of was bringing something that he was certain would get Q’s attention. It would be, in my personal point of view very ooc of Picard using Q’s feelings(and such scenario that this would happen should be with Mirror!Picard), even if he really needed.

I didn’t write there because I thought I should let it open but I think right way that Picard sees Q crying his heart would sink, and he would be like “Merde, I’m in danger now” at first before really understanding what’s happening in there(mostly because of a survival instict that humans have) and for that possibly hurting Q more with his words on it(not calling it a game anymore but calling out Q as an entity, who’s supposed to be almighty but is so immature along other things) and only after this is over he comes to senses to what actually occured, it really wasn’t a game of any sorts. Luckily for him Q loves him too much to harm him even if he wanted, the worst thing that could happen is that Jean-Luc would get surrounded by the liquid of the melted room but before Picard could drown, Q would teleport him away when he notices that he wasn’t able to breath and if Picard died somehow Q would bring him back to life, of course depending on which happened it would be more traumatizing to Q, specially because it was by his “omnipotent hands” but I don’t think in here Q would completly lose it, just really emotionally drained and exasperated by everything he has to pass through because of Picard emotionally, it’s scary for him wanting someone he can’t have and this was more of a part of the emotional breakdown that maybe he was holding back for a very long time. Also I don’t think Q would ever kill someone because Picard after Q Who, I mean the first reason for me saying this is mostly because after Deja-Q I believe Q must gathered minimum awareness on what death means and how it affects, couldn’t see Q killing anyone else in the motion of punishment in a way specially if he doesn’t want to totally lose his chance with Picard but destroying yeah I do think, mostly his made up worlds tho, just like the room melting.

I don’t think Picard would truly blame himself for the misscomunication but he would feel bad for Q, even feel pity and start to understand Q’s demeanour better. Picard isn’t heartless much less cruel, though after that situation he’s mix between should talk to Q, should I not? Because honestly I don’t think he knows what to say or do, like Q is hurt, the wound is still new and how he summon Q anyway? So I think he would wait for Q to appear which he does and Q is still very hurt and tries to be indifferent about all this and from this we can have Picard try to talk things out but misscomunication gets worse somehow because Q again missinterpreters it, specially now that he’s a bit sensitive or as well could go not exactly entirely good but they’re going somewhere there. The thing that gets me is Picard having feelings back to Q, depends much in when this is taking place but I would say that Picard could actually start having feelings for Q after what happened instead of just that subconcious attraction that he has that he may never truly say out loud, if this takes place before Tapestry I believe this is where a friendship between them could start if they can talk things out which honestly would take quite some misscomunications here and there before from actually happening yet. It’s really complicated and interesting to go within this route(it’s actually giving me a déjà vu of a qcard fic). But going back to what the scenario itself was and how much angst filled it is(and that I would find fantastic to indulge someday):

We could have Picard still in denial of all this, he’s between believing that was somehow some kind of nervous breakdown an omnipotent entity had in front of him as it doesn’t make sense to him why an omnipotent entity would love him, in here we don’t have Picard being cruel or anything he just can’t believe in the absurdity of it all, which hurts Q a lot. Not necessarily a game to Picard he just can’t and won’t believe it, which probably makes Q more frustated and angrier, it’s really complex and complicated place for both of them and it’s not even because Picard hates or dislikes but this denial happening and this tiring notion on fighting and Picard not knowing what to think or talk about it, chooses to try to ignore it because becoming fully aware and understanding Q is terrifying to Picard and what that means while Q is like but “he can’t just not feel something about this all that we have, can he???” I would need more time to think on it and add but I think that’s the vibe to go for it, Q isn’t really that deathly dangerous but there’s still maybe a sense of doom happening in here, specially in one of their fights maybe as Q visits Picard in a dream-like-time bringing Picard somewhere else made by Q himself to talk and things to go very well and a tantrum yet again happens and Q starts destroying the made up world around them out frustation more than actual “smiting”

My jam would be all this but Picard does have very repressed feelings for Q, and so when he says he doesn't feel anything for Q, both of them wonder if that's really true. Because there's something between them whether Picard lets himself feel it or not. It's buried under layers of decorum so deep even Q can only sort of sense it might be there at all, and Picard is so deeply restrained he only feels it simmering below his awareness.

Hear me out:

Junior dropping in while these three are in an argument. “Oh, hey Mom, Dad and other Dad.” Picard, who is not even aware that he is part of this triangle, is completely in shock and expects at least a negative reaction from Qs wife. But nothing happens.

It would start out as a a visit of curiosity and spite.

For once, she is curious is enough to see what all the fuss is about and on the other side she probably gets made fun of by the rest of the Continuum, that her 'mate' is way more interested in a human than her.

For the first interaction I think she would be incredibly arrogant and condescending. Which would sooner or later lead to one of Picards famous speeches. About how wrong she is to underestimate 'mortals' and especially humans. What humanity has accomplished in their 'short existence', the potential of it.

#Q totally would#and possibly even start bragging to Picard about it. Jean-Luc won’t even need to say or do anything else#Q would start this enormous monologue about it and god forbid if someone tries to stop him from speaking out about what Picard lost#by not going with him#Q possibly took full offense when Picard didn’t accept his offer and now Q’s about to let all his feelings about it out

Listen, Picard wouldn’t even lie to some extent. Because there might be a chance of Q finding out about the distraction, but Q would absolutely hate being obviously lied to. 

So he doesn’t straight up say it. More like implies it in ways that kind of reflect the truth. 

Did he regret not taking Q up on his offer? He is an archeology nerd. You can’t tell me that he hasn’t looked at an artifiact wondering just what it was used for or read up on interesting cultures and wished he could know more about it. And then the thought comes, that he knows a certain someone who could show him. Someone who did offer to show him whatever he wanted. And he did seem to hesitate a bit before his rejection in Qpid.

What he doesn’t tell Q is, that he is more than willing to lose that knowledge than risk than becoming Qs ‘companion’ (or toy as Picard would see it). 

Was he jealous of Vash? Kind of. It must have hurt his ego/self-esteem a bit to see both Q and Vash replace him. 

But Q takes it as jealousy as Picard admits that “It stung a little bit when I watched you leave with Vash. Not necessarily because Vash seemed so eager to leave, but” and here Picard would not be able to look at Q “because you found someone to replace me so easily.”

And Q would be sceptic at first, but since he sees/senses that Picard is telling the truth, nothing else would matter. 

It’s all his bruised ego wanted to hear. So of course, he goes on a rant. As you put it, about all the things Picard missed. About how Q could have taken him anywhere. That all the things Picard has seen during his entire lifetime are nothing compared to what he could show him. 

That a mortal like him should be grateful for Qs offer and interest. 

And so on and on. Picard just sits there, wondering if Q would even notice if he left. 

But then Q holds still in an almost unnatural way. No breath, no movement, nothing. Because Picard admitting to have been hurt by the thought of Q replacing him only now fully registered in his conscience.

The arrogance and aloofness disappears as he turns to Picard.

“Oh, but I could never replace you, Jean-Luc”

Picard immediatly starts missing the monologue. 

“That’s…good to know, Q.” 

“She was just the consolation prize.”

Picard is sure that Q seems to think of the way he smiles at Picard and comes closer to him as reassuring. It’s anything but.

“No one could replace you. Believe me, I have looked.”

If Riker doesn’t call him immediatly to give him the signal, that they are done, he is going to hold a mandatory meeting on efficiency during dire situations once he gets back. 

“But tell me again, were you truly jealous of her?” 

And there is the familiar arrogance. Something Picard actually knows how to work with. 

While he would normally deny it, he needs Qs ego to be in a good shape and his mood to be benevolent one once he finds out about what his crew has been up to during this whole ordeal. 

“Yes”

The whole room changes and Picard suddenly finds himself in what he can only describe as on overdone parody of a french restaurant in front of an equally overdone candlelight dinner. And were those violine players?

Perhaps this is just another one of Qs games. Yes, that must be it. Q has seen past his implications and distraction and this is Qs form of taking revenge while having fun. Any second Q is going to drop the charade and laugh at him for believing this madness. 

“I knew, Jean-Luc. I knew it. Sooner or later you would come to your senses and realize your true feelings for me. The others called me delusional, but once again you prove them wrong.”

That would go from hilarious to worrying and terrifying so fast, specially if Picard thinks it’s one of Q’s games, in a situation like this Q would totally have a tantrum about it and even possibly blame Picard for it

“Q this is far too ridiculous even for one of your games!”

“Game?” the music and ambient around them freezes “What do you mean by that, I’m here opening my heart after finally learning you feel the same and yet you call it a game!?”

Exhausted by what Picard feels is madness he lashes out irritated “Stop it already Q, you know very well that I feel nothing about you.”

“Nothing?” Q laughs “Oh please, I’m most certain that you feel quite much about me or else you wouldn’t be jealous of Vash!”

At that moment Picard’s commander badge beps, it was code between Riker and Picard, the signal. The little sound attracted Q’s attention and in a moment his pupils went pitch black in realization.

“So that’s it, you decided to play fiddle with a god’s feelings to distract him” with a sudden motion Q teleported right in front of Jean-Luc staring deeply with his dark cosmic eyes into the human’s stern ones “You should feel very ashamed of yourself Picard, you’re much better than this.”

Taking a step to gather composure and space Picard attacked back “You who twisted my own words yourself, I have no fault on what you choose to believe about them!” still believing, hoping! This was yet again another of Q’s games.

The room around them started melting, tears leaking from Q’s human face while still angrily staring deeply at Picard’s hazel eyes, the color of his tears are black as the endless space within the cosmos, it was even possible seeing stars circulating them.

To be fair to Picard, he still thinks or hopes at this point that Qs feelings are platonic and not romantic in nature. I do not think that Picard had any intention of ‘playing fiddle’ with Qs feelings. To him, he intended to give Q a bit of an ego trip, by admitting he kind of regrets not taking Q up on his offer to go on a trip to an ancient civilization. 

He was jealous of Vash, because through Q she would see things, he would probably never see. Also the sting to his ego at being easily replaced as Qs new subject of obsession/interest. 

The problem is, that Q interpreted the jealousy part as in Picard was jealous of Vash because of the same reason Q was jealous of her. Q was jealous of Vash, because she was Picards love interest at the time. So to Q, when Picard talked about replacement and jealousy, he thought that Picard was admitting to having felt a jealousy at thought of Vash being Qs new love interest. 

I do not think, that even if Picard doesn’t feel anything for Q, he would be cruel enough to play with his feeling like that if he truly knew about them. 

But what was he supposed to do? 

Pretend for the rest of his live/eternity that Q hasn’t completely misinterpreted his words?

I wonder if Picard still hopes Q is just playing pretend, after seeing him crying. or at least what seems to humans like crying and losing control over his powers. 

Because on one hand, Q would never show this kind of vulnerability willingly. Even when playing pretend. He was kicked of the Continuum and thrown nacked and as Troi explained terrified on the bridge of the Enterprise and he still didn’t display anywhere near the weakness like in this.

On the other side realizing that you just broke the heart/are in the process of breaking the heart of  an eldritch allmighty being beyond your comprehension, who is also the judge of humanity is not a very comforting realization. 

Especially when said being is losing their composure and control right in front of your eyes and you can see the heartbreak, hurt, anger and their love for you. 

Besides, Picard is not on the ship. He is in a place Q spontanously made up in his euphoria. Said place is currently dissolving into nothingness around you. 

Also, Q may be unwilling to kill/harm him, but who is to say that counts for anyone else. 

But still, this is a part in their dynamic I always found interesting as well. And I think Q is really terrified and furious about it. That a human has the power to hurt him in ways even the Continuum can’t. 

It’s a rather strange situation now, isn’t is? You have two people standing in frontof each other each one hoping the other one is just joking/or playing with them (because Q would deep down still hope that Picard was lying when he said that he felt nothing for him. A part of him still hopes/thinks that what Picard is saying is just denial. He was so incredibly happyy when he thought his love was returned and no matter what he still wants to feel that way again. Especiall now that he tasted the misery of heartbreak and sadness)

P. S.: Another problem I could see is that due to being a hive mind, the other Q can feel a part of the anger and heartbreak, and I do not think they would like it. Now in this case I don’t think their collective disapproval would be an Q, because they must be terrified as well. A Q losing control is a very dangerous thing and saying anything in the lines of ‘I told you so’ would only make it worse. Besides, they can also feel a second hand heartbreak and it is a horrible feeling. 

In this I think there would be a sort of solidarity or at least a try to calm Q down in the hopes of calming themselves and the rest of the hive down. 

“He didn’t mean it like that.” “You know how mortals are, they just do and say things sometimes that are completely untrue” 

Hear me out:

That’s exactly my thought on the matter.

If All Good Things really is the last time they saw each other than Picards reaction is understandable. 

I mean, if someone I just recently came to trust were to ghost me like that for centuries in times where I could have really needed them or at least someone to talk to and then they just come back AFTER CENTURIES like “Hello how are you. I really missed you” I would call bullshit too.

Picard probably has the feeling, that after all these years of zero contact Q just kind of forget/stopped caring and now he is bored or the Continuum decided to once again continie the trial because of whatever reason and then he remembered Picards existence. 

I haven’t really watched the seriess, but from what I have heard Picard went through some really though times before, during and after his retirement. 

And I beieve he just lost the belief in “Q has some interest in what happens to me” during that time, which is also understandable because he didn’t even come for a “Sorry but I couldn’t intervene because of the Continuum but how about I try to help you in different ways/distract you/anything at all.”

“I believe it would be fair to say

You look bewildered

And you wonder why I am here today

And so you should I would

…

And now you see another me

I hav been reloaded

I am fired up 

don’t shut me down

I am not the one you know

I am now and then combined