I messed around in the past with a grappling hook like from Zelda. I used the same principle as the basis for this. I ended up rewriting it. Use as much or as little as you want to. The timing might need some work or maybe a lot of work. The nice thing is the togue target remains fixed even if the player moves.
project:
The point used for the mouth needs work. it should take into account the size of the tongue and the angle. think of the mouth as a circle. you need to center that circle on the point but it changes based on the direction of the tongue. At its basic, the offset from the point would be minus half the height of the mouth or circle. Right now, it’s placing the top-left corner of the mouth at the mouth point on the player.
It’s late and my brain can’t get that value. I believe it’s a position like 16 pixels from the mouth point on the player in the opposite direction of the tongue.