diff --git a/script/directives.js b/script/directives.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0f159aa7a4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/script/directives.js
@@ -0,0 +1,102 @@
+'use strict';
+
+/**
+ * Markdown
+ * See http://www.heikura.me/#!/angularjs-markdown-directive
+ */
+(function(){
+  var md = function () {
+    marked.setOptions({
+      gfm:true,
+      pedantic:false,
+      sanitize:true
+      // callback for code highlighter
+      // Uncomment this (and htljs.tabReplace below) if we add in highlight.js (http://www.heikura.me/#!/angularjs-markdown-directive)
+//      highlight:function (code, lang) {
+//        if (lang != undefined)
+//          return hljs.highlight(lang, code).value;
+//
+//        return hljs.highlightAuto(code).value;
+//      }
+    });
+
+    emoji.img_path = 'bower_components/habitrpg-shared/img/emoji/unicode/';
+
+    var toHtml = function (markdown) {
+      if (markdown == undefined)
+        return '';
+
+      markdown = marked(markdown);
+      markdown = emoji.replace_colons(markdown);
+      markdown = emoji.replace_unified(markdown);
+
+      return markdown;
+    };
+
+    // [nickgordon20131123] this hacky override wraps images with a link to the image in a new window, and also adds some classes in case we want to style
+    marked.InlineLexer.prototype.outputLink = function(cap, link) {
+      var escape = function(html, encode) {
+        return html
+          .replace(!encode ? /&(?!#?\w+;)/g : /&/g, '&')
+          .replace(/</g, '&lt;')
+          .replace(/>/g, '&gt;')
+          .replace(/"/g, '&quot;')
+          .replace(/'/g, '&#39;');
+      };
+      if (cap[0].charAt(0) !== '!') {
+        return '<a class="markdown-link" target="_blank" href="'
+          + escape(link.href)
+          + '"'
+          + (link.title
+          ? ' title="'
+          + escape(link.title)
+          + '"'
+          : '')
+          + '>'
+          + this.output(cap[1])
+          + '</a>';
+      } else {
+        return '<a class="markdown-img-link" target="_blank" href="'
+          + escape(link.href)
+          + '"'
+          + (link.title
+          ? ' title="'
+          + escape(link.title)
+          + '"'
+          : '')
+          + '><img class="markdown-img" src="'
+          + escape(link.href)
+          + '" alt="'
+          + escape(cap[1])
+          + '"'
+          + (link.title
+          ? ' title="'
+          + escape(link.title)
+          + '"'
+          : '')
+          + '></a>';
+      }
+    }
+
+    //hljs.tabReplace = '    ';
+
+    return {
+      toHtml:toHtml
+    };
+  }();
+
+  habitrpg.directive('markdown', function() {
+    return {
+      restrict: 'E',
+      link: function(scope, element, attrs) {
+        scope.$watch(attrs.ngModel, function(value, oldValue) {
+          var markdown = value;
+          var linktarget = attrs.target || '_self';
+          var html = md.toHtml(markdown);
+          html = html.replace(' href','target="'+linktarget+'" href');
+          element.html(html);
+        });
+      }
+    };
+  });
+})()
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