Chosen Solution

Earlier my 3DS was involved in a rather unfortunate soda accident, and after cleaning it out and letting it dry for awhile it works relatively fine, but with a few issues -Top screen is brighter than bottom and is unaffected by brightness changes in theme menu -Top screen remains lit while in sleep mode while the bottom screen sleeps like it should -Error message is given whenever I attempt to use exterior cameras -3D mode had to be manually disabled via parental controls because the slider stopped functioning (remained lit despite my turning it completely down) This is an original 3DS, not an XL. Thank you in advance!

Even though you may have let the DS dry out, the issue still remains that there was liquid spilled causing issues with the circuits. Something internaly has been damaged by the fluid and will need to be replaced. Good luck