diff --git a/code/game/say.dm b/code/game/say.dm
index a5691ad11f..61dd9c0879 100644
--- a/code/game/say.dm
+++ b/code/game/say.dm
@@ -96,18 +96,16 @@ GLOBAL_LIST_INIT(freqtospan, list(
 	return "[say_mod(input, message_mode)][spanned ? ", \"[spanned]\"" : ""]"
 	// Citadel edit [spanned ? ", \"[spanned]\"" : ""]"
 
-#define ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, char, html, varname) \
-	var/static/regex/##varname = regex("[char]{2}(.+?)[char]{2}", "g");\
-	input = varname.Replace_char(input, "<[html]>$1</[html]>")
-
+/// Converts specific characters, like +, |, and _ to formatted output.
 /atom/movable/proc/say_emphasis(input)
-	ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, "\\|", "i", italics)
-	ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, "\\+", "b", bold)
-	ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS(input, "_", "u", underline)
+	var/static/regex/italics = regex(@"\|(\S[\w\W]*?\S)\|", "g")
+	input = italics.Replace_char(input, "<i>$1</i>")
+	var/static/regex/bold = regex(@"\+(\S[\w\W]*?\S)\+", "g")
+	input = bold.Replace_char(input, "<b>$1</b>")
+	var/static/regex/underline = regex(@"_(\S[\w\W]*?\S)_", "g")
+	input = underline.Replace_char(input, "<u>$1</u>")
 	return input
 
-#undef ENCODE_HTML_EPHASIS
-
 /// Quirky citadel proc for our custom sayverbs to strip the verb out. Snowflakey as hell, say rewrite 3.0 when?
 /atom/movable/proc/quoteless_say_quote(input, list/spans = list(speech_span), message_mode)
 	if((input[1] == "!") && (length_char(input) > 1))